Alexander Gerschenkron: A Personal and Fond Recollection

Abstract

Alexander Gerschenkron, Walter S. Barker Professor of Economics Emeritus at Harvard University, died in Cambridge, Massachusetts October 26, 1978, at the age of seventy-four. He was an influential teacher who, in his courses, introduced more than 1000 economists to economic history; his thesis students included many of the leading economic historians and Soviet specialists in the United States; as a research scholar his ideas left a major imprint on a number of fields. In this brief essay I would like to remember the teacher, the scholar, and the man.' Some twelve years ago, when a group of his students presented Alex2 with a Festschrift,3 we chose the following motto for the volume (from the Sayings of the Fathers): day is short, and the work is great, and the labourers are sluggish, and the reward is much, and the Master is urgent. There was that side to Alex. Those of us who worked closely with him always felt slightly lazy and suspected that we were underachievers. We remained perpetually awed by his work habits, knowledge, and erudition. After all, why were we either unable or unwilling to pick up Swedish or Bulgarian-before breakfast-to pursue a temporary research interest? We always felt as though we were in the presence of someone whose level of culture and education was beyond us-and there is no doubt that, unfortunately, we were right. But the Master was not only urgent; he was also inspiring, human, and kind. Economics 233-The Economic History of Europe-was one of the great Harvard courses for some twenty-five years. In the post-Schumpeterian era it was virtually the only course in the graduate economics curriculum that directly assaulted the provincialism of most students. They emerged from it more civilized: aware of other cultures and other times, and sensitive to the ways in which the tools of modern economic analysis could help in understanding the past. That was the real beginning of the New Economic History! The course usually enrolled over sixty students. The use of teaching fellows was disdained. He required two long term papers, which he read and returned with extensive comments-quite a few of these papers eventually were published-and each semester he insisted on a personal interview with every student to choose topics and discuss results. These interviews deserve a special word. A clumsy move in Alex's small Littauer office could precipitate a dangerous avalanche of books-I did it more than once. These and similarfaux pas, however, were usually relieved by the offer of a glass of brandy at almost any time of day. Those who wrote their dissertations with Alex came to think of him as a friend. He was as interested in us as people as he was in our intellectual development. Many of us, I believe, chose to specialize in economic history and the Soviet economy because we were attracted by his personality, by the challenge of interacting with such a powerful mind. We admired his love for and facility with his adopted language, English; some of us were puz-