‘A willing Odysseus’: The life and times of Albert O. Hirschman

Abstract

In this review essay of Jeremy Adelman's biography of Albert O. Hirschman, A worldly philosopher, supplemented by references to other secondary works on Hirschman, I take the opportunity to discuss the relationship between the economist's life and his main publications. I argue that in times of crisis more attempts like Hirschman's political economy are needed. I further argue that Hirschman has given us a good idea of what a new moral economy, which really deserves this name, would look like.

Keywords:

• Albert O. Hirschman
• biography
• political economy
• moral economy

Notes

1 In the UK the notable exceptions were The Financial Times and the Schumpeter column of The Economist. As for the other obituaries see ‘Albert O. Hirschman 1915–2012’, Press release of the Institute of Advanced Study, http://www.ias.edu/news/press-release/2012/12/12/hirschman; ‘Albert O. Hirschman, economist’, The Financial Times, 13 December 2012; ‘Skepsis und Interesse’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 14 December 2012; ‘Albert O. Hirschman, influential social scientist, dies at 97’, Washington Post, 14 December 2012; ‘Eine Ökonomie ohne Moral kann es nicht geben’, Die Welt, 16 December 2012; ‘Grenzgänger der Ökonomie’, Der Tagesspiegel, 18 December 2012; ‘Der Ökonom, der den Nutzen des Meckerns entdeckte’, Die Zeit, 18 December 2012; ‘Albert O. Hirschman, économiste engagé et autosubversif’, Le Monde, 21 December 2012; ‘Exit Albert O. Hirschman’, The Economist, 22 December 2012; ‘Albert Hirschman, optimist economist, dies at 97’, New York Times, 23 December 2012; ‘Albert O. Hirschman, 97, economist; fought fascism’, Boston Globe, 28 December 2012; ‘Albert Hirschman: Economista heterodoxo’, El País, 26 December 2012 and, in the same paper, ‘Cenizas sin apagar’, 30 December 2012.

2 See Jeremy Adelman's presentation and the subsequent discussion at Oxford, http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9935.html.

3 I will make use of Hirschman's original order of given names and initials (‘OA’) until the time the order is reversed on arrival in the United States when Otto Albert Hirschmann becomes ‘Albert O. Hirschman’ (and, accordingly, ‘AOH’).

4 Erich Auerbach, exiled literary authority and author of Mimesis, would become part of that same intellectual circle.

5 Lisa Fittko (1991) Escape through the Pyrenees; Varian Fry (1945), Surrender on demand; Andy Marino (1999) A quiet American: The secret war of Varian Fry and Laurent Jeanpierre's dissertation (2004) ‘Des hommes entre plusieurs mondes. Étude sur une situation d'exil’.

6 There is a very fine chapter in Adelman's biography in which he describes some other aspects of Hirschman's Italian assignment. AOH had been hired to function as translator in one of the first war crimes trials. One photo in the New York Times (reprinted in Adelman's biography) showed Hirschman next to General Dostler who had been found guilty of war crimes charges and to whom Hirschman had to communicate the death sentence.

7 See Hess (1999).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andreas Hess

Andreas Hess teaches sociology at University College Dublin. Latest publications: Gesellschaftspolitisches Denken in den USA (2013, Wiesbaden: Springer VS) and (forthcoming) Exile from exile: The political theory of Judith N. Shklar (2014, New York: Palgrave Macmillan).