Albert O. Hirschman

A ‘Beamish’ Social Scientist for Our Grandchildren

Bibliographic Data

ID9685889
AuthorsEmre Özçelik (0000-0003-0498-8928, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume45
Issue5
Pages1111-1133
Publication date2014-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDevelopment and Change (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0012-155X • E-ISSN: 1467-7660
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/dech.12116
OpenAlexW1581728823
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited28

The story of Albert O. Hirschman might be read as a collective memory in the form of a personal tale, a re-encounter with a social science that finds hope in disappointment, solutions in tension, and liberty in uncertainty, a style of regarding the social world as a source of possibilities that the intellectual can help summon with a different combination of humility and daring.(Adelman, 2013a: 15) Otto Albert Hirschmann was born to well-educated Jewish parents in Berlin.His name was changed to Albert Otto Hirschman in the USA (the first and middle names switched and one of the n's in the surname dropped).Before leaving Europe for the US in early 1941, Hirschman completed his pre-career education in the most cosmopolitan way possible.His involvement in anti-fascist struggles in Europe during the 1930s provided him with a down-to-earth background, upon which he built his ground-breaking intellectual career in the US, where he became a distinguished expert in development economics, political economy and history of economic thought.Having fought against General Franco's nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, Hirschman also worked for the so-called Emergency Rescue Committee in 1940.The Committee was led by Varian Fry, an American activist journalist who, as a foreign correspondent in Berlin in 1935, had witnessed the Nazi purge of the Jews.While in New York, Fry brought together many anti-fascists and collected US$ 3,000 to be used in a clandestine rescue operation.The objective of the operation was to save 'especially the better-known intellectuals and artists who were known to be in danger' in southern France.As Fry arrived in Marseilles to lead the rescue operation, Hirschman became his 'right-hand man'.Impressed by Hirschman's 'irrepressible smile and charm', Fry nicknamed him Beamish.Indeed, Hirschman's 'smile and can-do approach to even the thorniest problem earned him the nickname Beamish among everyone involved in the rescue operation'.Fry and Beamish worked together intimately in an

Disappointment · Humility · Tribute · Political Conflict and Governance

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access