Alexander Gerschenkron’s Followers (6)

Alexander Gerschenkron

Born

in Odessa, Ukraine

October 01, 1904

Died

October 26, 1978

Influences

Karl Marx

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"Gerschenkron was an economic historian and a comparativist, writing on the European past and the Soviet present. He taught from 1948 to 1975 in the department of economics at Harvard, producing, if that is quite the word, scores of graduate students and writing a moderate number of books. He made an impression. Students and colleagues lived in awe of him, and not only because they were merely economists while he was everything, a polymath ranging over statistics and Greek poetry and a great deal in between. Other people who know everything - the Bernard Lewises and the Albert Hirschmans of the scholarly world - tell stories about Gerschenkrons erudition and wit as though even they, too, were impressed."

- Donald McCloskey ...more

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Alexander Gerschenkron’s books

Average rating: 3.81 · 53 ratings · 6 reviews · 15 distinct works

	Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 34 ratings — published 1962 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bread and Democracy in Germany (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs liked it 3.00 avg rating — 8 ratings — published 1943 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Continuity in History and Other Essays 4.50 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1968 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mercator Gloriosus it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Economic Spurt that Failed: Four Lectures in Austrian History (Eliot Janeway Lectures on Historical Economics) liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1977 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The stability of dictatorships liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A dollar index of Soviet machinery output, 1927-28 to 1937 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	El atraso economico en su perspectiva historica 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Economic backwardness in historical perspective: A book of essays 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Alexander Gerschenkron (?)

“No past experience, however rich, and no historical research, however thorough, can save the living generation the creative task of finding their own answers and shaping their own future.”
― Alexander Gerschenkron

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“It`s a general hazard of social science that the objects of our study time and again tend to confuse the scholarly observer by making statements about themselves. When those statements are supported by monopolistic dominance over communication media on the part of a powerful dictatorial government, their persuasive power is further enhanced. Nevertheless, however often Soviet Russia may introduce itself to the world as a socialist country, the fact remains that the social scientist may find it more illuminating to consider… as an economy which by the will of a ruthless totalitarian government has been kept in the process of a very rapid industrialization. “Accumulate, accumulate! This is Moses and the Prophets!” Those are the words in which Karl Marx tried to describe the quintessence of capitalism. There is every reason to doubt that there has been any economy on modern historical record to which these words would apply with greater justification that to the economy of the Union of the so-called Socialist Soviet Republics”
― Alexander Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective

tags: communism, development, economy, history, soviet-union

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“Predictions are precarious. Still, so firmly has the Soviet political system been wedded to the policy of a high and growing rate of investment that at least this observer of its evolution has felt tempted to conclude that no other economic policy would be easily compatible with the maintenance of the Soviet dictatorship; in other words, that a policy of rapid increases of consumer`s welfare either would remain unacceptable to the dictators or, if accepted, would in all likelihood lead to the disintegration of the dictatorship. It matters little in this connection whether future history will verify or falsify this hypothesis. It is referred to here in order to throw into relief the antagonistic nature of the allegedly classless economy in which the investment interest of the government has been continually opposed by the consumption interest of the population.”
― Alexander Gerschenkron, Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective

tags: communism, development, economy, prediction, soviet-union

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