Illustrating Economics: Beasts, Ballads and Aphorisms

This volume is a sampling of quips, verses, drawings, and even the music of one of the most original and versatile minds of the twentieth century, Kenneth Boulding prominent economist, lecturer, and author.

The driving force behind Kenneth Boulding’s wideranging book is that he truly en joys all that he does. Indeed, his greatest accomplishment may very well be that he was a profoundly happy man. This is reflected in works that are laced with beauty, wit, and extraordinary imagery-works that are often composed and appeared in the most unexpected of places. In the midst of one of the classic textbooks of his generally staid profession, Economic Analysis, Boulding introduced the bathtub theorem. Illustrating Economics: Beasts, Ballads and Aphorisms is a collection of similar instances and, as such, it is fun.

The reader should be advised that the book contains traps. Boulding coats his ideas with sugar to please his audience as well as promote consumption. He describes peace as a drab girl with an olive branch corsage whom no red-blooded American (or Russian) could conceivably warm up to. The reader smiles at the recognition of the truth inherent within the image and ponders the irony of why so fine a state as peace should be regarded as dull, and so ugly a condition as war should be regarded as romantic. This book is for enjoyment, but it should carry the following warning: Caution-Reading this may be stimulating to your intellect.