In the tributes and obituaries that followed John Kenneth (Ken) Galbraith's death on April 29, 2006, much was made of his long and varied career, as well as his closeness to power. John Kenneth Galbraith was a distinguished Harvard economist, an accomplished diplomat, a political activist, a confidant and adviser to presidents, a memoirist and novelist, and one of the best-selling economic writers of his time. The conventional reflection noted his colorful life, celebrated his mordant wit and prose, yet generally castigated his theorizing as being obsolete. This is a major travesty. Galbraith was one of the leading progressive intellectuals of the post-World War II period who, though part of the establishment, was happy to point out its self-serving interests and convenient myths. But he was more than just a gadfly.