AustLit

'In reviewing Alex Millmow's biography of Colin Clark, I should begin with disclosure of my own interests. When I first became politically aware, in the early 1970s, I knew of Clark as something of a fringe figure in Australian public policy debate, closely associated with B.A. Santamaria. He was prominent both as an extreme anti-Malthusian, claiming that the world could support a population of 50 billion, and for the proposition that the ratio of taxation to national income could not exceed 25 per cent without dire consequences. I was not sympathetic to either view.' (Introduction)

'Colin Clark, the subject of this biography, was regarded as one of Australia’s most profound thinkers. The Economic Society of Australia chose him as the joint winner (with Trevor Swan) of its inaugural Distinguished Fellow award in 1987. The University of Queensland, where Clark held an honorary appointment in his final years, had such a high opinion of him that it named both the building housing its Economics Faculty and an annual public lecture in his honour. John Maynard Keynes referred to Clark as ‘a bit of a genius: almost the only economic statistician I have ever met who seems to me quite first class’ (Moggridge (ed.), The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, vol. XXIX, 1979, 57). Several universities, including Monash, Queensland, Milan and Tilburg, awarded him honorary degrees. Among his major contributions to economics was the concept of Gross National Product or GNP. He was also a founder of development economics: the World Bank included Clark among its top 10 pioneers of development economics.'(Introduction) 

'The examination of the history of economic thought is a critical element in building our understanding of history as well as of prospective policy prescriptions. Not only does this understanding allow us to appreciate the intent and rationality of economic prescriptions in times gone by, but it also allows us assess their efficacy and relevance today. This is a common and logical defence of the study of history generally, to be sure, but no less relevant for being so.' (Introduction)