Albert O. Hirschman

An Intellectual Biography

Albert O. Hirschman
Michele Alacevich
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Hardback
h229 x 152mm - 352pg
6 Apr 2021 US
International import eta 10-30 days
9780231199827
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One of the most original social scientists of the twentieth century, Albert O. Hirschman led an uncommonly dramatic life. After fleeing Nazi Germany as a youth, he fought in the Spanish Civil War, took part in antifascist activities in Italy, and organized an underground rescue operation in Marseille through which more than 2,000 people, including Marc Chagall, Arthur Koestler, and Hannah Arendt, escaped Europe. Hirschman moved across topics, methodologies, and disciplinary boundaries as fluidly as he crossed among countries and languages. His work is marked by a deep suspicion of all-encompassing theories, valuing instead doubt and a sensitivity to contingencies and unexpected consequences. In this intellectual biography, the economic historian Michele Alacevich explores the development and trajectory of Hirschman' s characteristic approach to social-scientific questions. He traces the many strands of Hirschman' s thought and their place in his multifaceted body of work, considering their limitations as well as their strengths. Alacevich puts Hirschman' s ideas into context, following his participation in the major intellectual and political debates of his times. He examines Hirschman' s pioneering work in development studies and his analyses of social change, the history of capitalism, and the workings of democracy alongside his activities in the postwar reconstruction of Europe and economic development in Latin America. A compelling intellectual portrait of a profoundly distinctive thinker, this book also reflects on Hirschman' s legacy and lasting influence.
The quietly vibrant and open-minded scholarship of Albert O. Hirschman, a mix of modesty and assertiveness about political economy, demography, the history of ideas, democracy and social movements, and analytical theory, deserves this book' s bracing critical engagement. With a sympathetic yet tough-minded disposition, Michele Alacevich thoughtfully assesses the innovative and often inspiring achievements of Hirschman' s field-stretching writings, as well as their lacunae and occasional overstatement. In so doing, his keen appraisal captures not just the range, depth, and verve of the writing but also the urgency of Hirschman' s quest for grounded reform across a considerable range of geography and historical circumstances with an unremitting sense of realism. -- Ira Katznelson, author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time This wonderful book offers new insights on a giant of the social sciences. Alacevich places Hirschman' s work in intellectual context and traces its long arc of influence to our day. The book sheds new light not just on Hirschman' s scholarship but also his iconoclasm, deliberate provocativeness, often frustrating focus on the particular rather than the general, and ' propensity for self-subversion. ' It therefore helps us understand the sharp contrast between the brilliance of Hirschman' s contributions and his outsider status in the academic disciplines he inhabited or trespassed in. -- Dani Rodrik, author of Straight Talk on Trade: Ideas for a Sane World Economy A superb examination of the vast legacy of a major 20th-century thinker. * Kirkus Reviews (starred) *
Michele Alacevich is an associate professor of economic history and the history of economic thought at the University of Bologna. He is the author of The Political Economy of the World Bank: The Early Years (2009) and coauthor of Inequality: A Short History (2018), among other books.
Status: Active
ISBN-13: 9780231199827
Published: 6 Apr 2021
Published In: United States
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Format: Hardback
Height: 229mm
Width: 152mm
Pages: 352

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