Editing John Maynard Keynes (section)

==Early life and education==
[[Image:KingsCollegeChapelWest.jpg|thumb| [[King's College, Cambridge]]. Keynes's grandmother wrote to him saying that, since he was born in Cambridge, people will expect him to be clever.]]
John Maynard Keynes was born in [[Cambridge]], England, in June 1883 to an upper-middle-class family. His father, [[John Neville Keynes]], was an economist and a lecturer in [[moral science]]s at the University of Cambridge and his mother, [[Florence Ada Keynes]], a local social reformer. Keynes was the firstborn and was followed by two more children{{snd}}[[Margaret Hill (social reformer)|Margaret Neville Keynes]] in 1885 and [[Geoffrey Keynes]] in 1887. Geoffrey became a surgeon and Margaret married the Nobel Prize-winning physiologist [[Archibald Hill]].

According to the reminiscences of his brother Geoffrey, their parents were loving and attentive. They attended a Congregational Church<ref>{{cite book |last1=Keynes |first1=Geoffrey |editor1=Milo Keynes |title=Essays on John Maynard Keynes |date=1975 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=London |isbn=978-0-521-20534-4 |pages=26–35 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/essaysonjohnmayn0000unse_n9x6/page/26/mode/2up |chapter=The Early Years|chapter-url-access=registration}}</ref>{{r|2003 Skidel|p=14}} and remained in the same house throughout their lives, where the children were always welcome to return. Keynes received considerable support from his father, including expert coaching to help him pass his scholarship exams and financial help both as a young man and when his assets were nearly wiped out at the onset of [[Great Depression]] in 1929. Keynes's mother made her children's interests her own, and according to Skidelsky, "because she could grow up with her children, they never outgrew home".{{r|2003 Skidel|p=14}}

In January 1889, at the age of five and a half, Keynes started at the kindergarten of the [[Perse School for Girls]] for five mornings a week. He quickly showed a talent for arithmetic, but his health was poor leading to several long absences. He was tutored at home by a governess, Beatrice Mackintosh, and his mother. In January 1892, at eight and a half, he started as a day pupil at [[St Faith's School|St Faith's]] preparatory school. By 1894, Keynes was top of his class and excelling at mathematics. In 1896, St Faith's headmaster, Ralph Goodchild, wrote that Keynes was "head and shoulders above all the other boys in the school" and was confident that Keynes could get a scholarship to Eton.<ref>Sources:
* {{cite book|last=Hession|first=Charles Henry|title=John Maynard Keynes: A Personal Biography of the Man Who Revolutionized Capitalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l8JdAAAAIAAJ|year=1984|pages=12–|isbn=0025513109|publisher=MacMillan Ltd.|access-date=27 June 2015|archive-date=1 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101230121/https://books.google.com/books?id=l8JdAAAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}
* {{cite book|last=Dostaler|first=Gilles|title=Keynes and His Battles|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fGIamxBxQgsC&pg=PA262|year=2007|publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing|isbn=978-1-78100-837-9|pages=262–|access-date=27 June 2015|archive-date=15 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150315070949/http://books.google.com/books?id=fGIamxBxQgsC&pg=PA262|url-status=live}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Keynes.html|title=John Maynard Keynes|first1=J.J.|last1=O'Connor|first2=E.F.|last2=Robertson|date=October 2003|publisher=MacTutor History of Mathematics|place=School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St Andrews, Scotland|access-date=25 January 2014|archive-date=25 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191025235917/http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Keynes.html|url-status=live}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.maynardkeynes.org/keynes-career-timeline.html#begin|website=John Maynard Keynes|title=Timeline|at=§"Pre-Career Years – 1883 to 1905"}}
* {{cite journal|last=Gümüş|first=Erdal|title=J. M. Keynes; Liberalism and Keynes; Keynes's Personal Life; Keynes's School Years|journal=Dumlupinar University Journal of Social Sciences|volume=5|issue=9|year=2003|pages=81–100|place=Eskisehir Osmangazi University|id=MPRA Paper No. 42373|url=http://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/id/eprint/42373|access-date=25 January 2014|archive-date=14 February 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220214204220/https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/42373/|url-status=live}} (cites Skidelsky)
* {{citation|title=130 years of Perse Girls – Stephen Perse Foundation|url=http://www.stephenperse.com/resource.aspx?id=1666|year=2011|page=8|access-date=25 January 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150822072052/http://www.stephenperse.com/resource.aspx?id=1666|archive-date=22 August 2015}} includes a photograph that is said to show Keynes as a child at the Perse School Kindergarten</ref>

In 1897, Keynes won a King's Scholarship to [[Eton College]], where he displayed talent in a wide range of subjects, particularly mathematics, [[classics]] and history: in 1901, he was awarded the [[George Tomline (politician)#Tomline Prize|Tomline Prize]] for mathematics. At Eton, Keynes experienced the first "love of his life" in Dan Macmillan, older brother of the future Prime Minister [[Harold Macmillan]].{{r|supermac|p=27}} Despite his middle-class background, Keynes mixed easily with upper-class pupils.

In 1902, Keynes left Eton for [[King's College, Cambridge]], after receiving a scholarship for this also, to read mathematics. [[Alfred Marshall]] begged Keynes to become an economist,<ref>
{{Cite book
|last=McGee
|first=Matt
|title=Economics – In terms of The Good, The Bad and The Economist
|year=2005
|page=354
|isbn=1-876659-10-6|publisher=IBID Press
|location=S.l.
|oclc= 163584293 }}
</ref> although Keynes's own inclinations drew him towards philosophy, especially the ethical system of [[G. E. Moore]]. Keynes was elected to the [[University Pitt Club]]{{r|Moggridge|pp=[https://archive.org/details/maynardkeyneseco0047mogg/page/52 52–81]}} and was an active member of the semi-secretive [[Cambridge Apostles]] society, a debating club largely reserved for the brightest students. Like many members, Keynes retained a bond to the club after graduating and continued to attend occasional meetings throughout his life. Before leaving Cambridge, Keynes became the president of the [[Cambridge Union Society]] and [[Cambridge University Liberal Club]]. He was said to be an atheist.<ref name="robinson">{{cite book |last1=Robinson |first1=Austin|editor1=Milo Keynes |title=Essays on John Maynard Keynes |date=1975 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=London |isbn=978-0-521-20534-4 |pages=26–35 |url=https://archive.org/details/essaysonjohnmayn0000unse_n9x6/mode/1up |chapter=A Personal View |url-access=registration}} See p.[https://archive.org/details/essaysonjohnmayn0000unse_n9x6/page/11/mode/1up 11]</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sgpb7PBClmUC&q=John+Maynard+Keynes+atheist&pg=PT24|title=Humanism: A Beginner's Guide|last=Cave|first=Peter|date=1 March 2009|publisher=Oneworld Publications|isbn=978-1-78074-029-4|language=en|access-date=5 October 2020|archive-date=17 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417191419/https://books.google.com/books?id=sgpb7PBClmUC&q=John+Maynard+Keynes+atheist&pg=PT24|url-status=live}}</ref>

In May 1904, he received a first-class [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in mathematics. Aside from a few months spent on holidays with family and friends, Keynes continued to involve himself with the university over the next two years. He took part in debates, further studied philosophy and attended economics lectures informally as a graduate student for one term, which constituted his only formal education in the subject. He took civil service exams in 1906.

The economist [[Harry Gordon Johnson|Harry Johnson]] wrote that the optimism imparted by Keynes's early life is a key to understanding his later thinking.<ref>
{{cite web
 |url         = http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/item_single.php?item_id=31&item=biography
 |title       = Biography of Baron John Maynard Keynes
 |publisher   = LiberalHistory.org
 |author      = David Gowland
 |access-date  = 29 May 2009
|url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110616040146/http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/item_single.php?item_id=31&item=biography
 |archive-date = 16 June 2011
}}
</ref>
Keynes was always confident he could find a solution to whatever problem he turned his attention to and retained a lasting faith in the ability of government officials to do good.<ref name="Cunningham">{{cite book | last1 = Aschheim | first1 = J. | last2 = Tavlas | first2 = G. S. | last3 = Heinsohn | first3 = G. | last4 = Steiger | first4 = O. | editor-last = Wood | editor-first = John Cunningham | chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EYbno7vSEbQC&pg=PA103 | title = John Maynard Keynes: Critical Assessments |pages= 101–120, 135 | series = Second | chapter = The Monetary Thought-Ideology Nexus: Simons verses Keynes; Marx and Keynes – Private Property and Money | isbn = 978-0-415-11415-8 | year = 1994 | access-date = 25 August 2020 | archive-date = 17 April 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210417191421/https://books.google.com/books?id=EYbno7vSEbQC&pg=PA103 | url-status = live }}</ref>
Keynes's optimism was also cultural, in two senses: he was of the last generation raised by [[British Empire|an empire]] still at the height of its power and was also of the last generation who felt entitled to govern by culture, rather than by expertise. According to [[Robert Skidelsky|Skidelsky]], the sense of cultural unity current in Britain from the 19th century to the end of [[World War I]] provided a framework with which the well-educated could set various spheres of knowledge in relation to each other and life, enabling them to confidently draw from different fields when addressing practical problems.{{r|2003 Skidel|pp=146–147}}