Keynes helped us through the crisis – but he's still out of favour

A brief burst of Keynes prevented a 1930s-style collapse that might have led to a more fundamental rethink of the status quo

Keynes's General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money is to economics what Joyce's Ulysses is to literature: a classic that lots more people start than finish. The same applies to two other seminal works from the dismal science: Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and Karl Marx's Capital.

It is a fair bet, though, that a good chunk of the Keynes devotees at last week's British Academy celebration of the 80th anniversary of the publication of the General Theory in February 1936 had ploughed their way through Postulates of the Classical Economy to Notes on Mercantilism, while only occasionally thinking they would rather be reading Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.