CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 29 (UPI) -- John Kenneth Galbraith, whose popular books made him one of the most famous economists in the United States, died Saturday at 97.
Galbraith's son confirmed his father's death at a hospital in Cambridge, Massa., where he lived, The New York Times reported.
In addition to his years as a Harvard professor and his books, Galbraith served as an adviser to Democratic political candidates and presidents -- notably Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy. Kennedy named him ambassador to India.
In books like "The Affluent Society" and "The New Industrial State," Galbraith argued that large corporations -- because of their size and ability to plan -- were not governed by the free market.
Galbraith was born on a farm in Dunwich Township, Ontario, and studied at Ontario Agricultural College before transferring to the University of Toronto. He received a doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in 1934 and was hired by Harvard the same year as an instructor.
After a brief stint at Princeton, Galbraith spent the World War II years and immediate post-war period in a series of government jobs and a stretch at Fortune Magazine. He returned to Harvard in 1949.
