The Postwar Economic Order -

About the Book

Years before he became renowned as one of the most original social scientists of the twentieth century, Albert O. Hirschman played an active role in the rebuilding of postwar Europe. This book presents a collection of his reports about economic policy, early efforts at intra-European cooperation, and the new U.S.-centered international order.

Book Synopsis

Winner, 2024 Best Scholarly Edition Award, European Society for the History of Economic Thought

Years before he became renowned as one of the most original social scientists of the twentieth century, Albert O. Hirschman played an active role in the rebuilding of postwar Europe. Between 1946 and 1952, he worked as an economic analyst in the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Board of the United States, focusing on the reconstruction of Europe and the Marshall Plan. In that capacity, Hirschman wrote a number of reports about European economic policies, the first efforts at intra-European cooperation, and the uncertainties that surrounded the shaping of a new international economic order with the United States at its core.

The Postwar Economic Order presents a collection of these interrelated reports, which offer incisive firsthand analysis of postwar Europe and give a behind-the-scenes view of American debates on European economic recovery. They feature nuanced and sophisticated discussion of topics such as the postwar "dollar shortage," U.S.-European relations, and the first steps toward European economic integration. Hirschman provides original and perceptive interpretations of the struggles that European governments faced along their paths toward economic recovery. Throughout, Hirschman's stylistic gifts and characteristic ways of reasoning are on full display as he highlights the counterintuitive and paradoxical aspects of economic and political processes. Shedding new light on the origins of European economic cooperation, this book provides unparalleled insight into the development of Hirschman's thinking on economic development and reform.

Review Quotes

These are two wonderful books which should be read by all those interested in economic development and international relations. They help us understand how the interplay between ideas, power and structural constraints -- both at the domestic and international economic levels -- affects the direction of economic change and determines its success or failure in fostering growth, welfare and political democracy.-- "Development and Change"

A timely contribution to ongoing debates in economic, international, and business history.-- "Business History Review"

A valuable instrument for both historians and economists, in order to better appreciate a heterodox economist and reformer.-- "Journal of European Economic History"

This important volume illuminates the unorthodox and pragmatic views on postwar Europe and a new international economic order of one of the twentieth century's most prominent social scientists. Brilliantly introduced, these little-known essays provide food for thought on Europe's way forward and the relaunch of an open international environment.

--Gianni Toniolo, LUISS School of European Political Economy, Rome

Between the early Albert Hirschman who did uncredited work for Alexander Gerschenkron and the late Hirschman who was a celebrated development economist is the forgotten Hirschman who analyzed Europe for the Federal Reserve Board. Michele Alacevich and Pier Francesco Asso have done us a service by collecting Hirschman's unpublished reports on post-World War II Europe between 1947 and 1952. Hirschman appears as an already fully-formed development economist attuned to the complexities of a multisector economy but also as a sophisticated analyst of monetary factors that, interestingly, fall away in his subsequent work. A must-read not just for historians of economic thought but also for scholars of economic development.--Barry Eichengreen, George C. Pardee & Helen N. Pardee Chair and Distinguished Professor of Economics and Political Science, University of California, Berkeley

These collected reports provide a unique vantage point on the postwar coevolution of European integration, multilateralism, and the Marshall Plan. We see that Hirschman's postwar tenure as a researcher at the Fed's Western European desk was deeply formative and intellectually fertile. In these reports we see embryos of what later became Hirschman's signature epistemic, theoretical, and normative commitments. In this way, the collection provides us with insight into the intellectual development of one of the twentieth century's most powerful and original intellects.--Ilene J. Grabel, Distinguished University Professor, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver

About the Author

Albert O. Hirschman (1915-2012) was an acclaimed and influential economist and social scientist. He taught at Columbia University and Harvard University, and he was professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His best-known books include National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade (1945), The Strategy of Economic Development (1958), Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States (1970), The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism Before Its Triumph (1977), Shifting Involvements: Private Interest and Public Action (1982), and The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy (1991).

Michele Alacevich is professor of the history of economics and economic history at the University of Bologna. He is the author of Albert O. Hirschman: An Intellectual Biography (Columbia, 2021) and The Political Economy of the World Bank: The Early Years (2009), as well as coauthor of Inequality: A Short History (2018).

Pier Francesco Asso is professor of the history of economic thought and international political economy at the University of Palermo. He is the author of several books in Italian on topics such as the history of banking and twentieth-century economic thought.