Robert Skidelsky and his last book

Robert Skidelsky and his last book

Robert Skidelsky was the foremost biographer of Keynes. His last book, Keynes for Our Times, was published posthumously this year. It was a surprise to find that our recent book was a prominent reference in his book. In his book excerpt from the website of the Yale University Press, there are three references. The second one is our book.

Robert Skidelsky (1939 -2026) had an interesting life. He was born in Harbin, China. Early in his life, he wrote a biography in 1975 for Oswald Mosley, the founder of British Union of Fascists, for which he paid dearly.

Keynes and Mosley share similar ideas on economics. They both disagreed then government policies, such as Churchill’s return to gold standard. After the collapse of the British gold standard in 1931, Mosley commented, "faced with the alternative of saying goodbye to the gold standard, and therefore to his own employment, and goodbye to other people's employment, Mr. Churchill characteristically selected the latter course."

There is a strong connection between Robert Skidelsky’s biography of Oswald Mosley (1975) and his work on John Maynard Keynes (1983–2000).

The bridge between these two projects was Skidelsky’s interest in the interwar economic crisis of the 1920s and 1930s and the figures who challenged the British establishment’s orthodox economic policies.

Reference

Keynes for Our Time, book excerpt

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/2026/07/24/an-excerpt-keynes-for-our-times/