Kenneth Boulding: A Voice Crying in the Wilderness (Great Thinkers in Economics)

Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993) was a notable economist and educator, best known for his contribution to General Systems Theory, ecological economics and conflict and defense. This text gives insight into the life and multidisciplinary work of Boulding. Boulding was born to a working-class family in Liverpool, England. He was greatly influenced by World War I as a child, which made him a lifelong pacifist, eventually leading him to join the Society of Friends (Quakers) while in college. Boulding defied class distinctions by earning a scholarship to study at Oxford University. After graduating he studied economics at the University of Chicago, and later settled in America taking a job at Colgate University where he wrote his bestselling textbook Economic Analysis. This book along with other publications won Boulding the John Bates Clark Medal in 1949. At this same time, Boulding took a job at the University of Michigan where he began to adopt a more transdisciplinary approach to economic as well as social problems, such as war and environmental sustainability. In 1968 he was elected president of the American Economics Association. Boulding's religious beliefs mixed with his general systems thinking led him to apply his unique perspective to areas such as peace, conflict resolution, human betterment, ethics, evolution, general systems and power. This study provides a summary of Kenneth Boulding's achievements, making it indispensable reading for scholars and researchers of history of economic thought and economic theory. It will also appeal to a broader readership of social sciences.