The Essential Hirschman

by Albert O. Hirschman, Emma Rothschild (Afterword), Amartya Sen (Afterword)

Some of the finest essays in the social sciences, written by one of the twentieth century's most influential and provocative thinkers ​​​The Essential Hirschman brings together some of the finest essays in the social sciences, written by one of the twentieth century's most influential and provocative thinkers. Albert O. Hirschman was a master essayist, one who possessed the rare ability to blend the precision of economics with the elegance of literary imagination. In an age in which our academic disciplines require ever-greater specialization and narrowness, it is rare to encounter an intellectual who can transform how we think about inequality by writing about traffic, or who can slip in a quote from Flaubert to reveal something surprising about taxes. The essays gathered here span an astonishing range of topics and perspectives, including industrialization in Latin America, imagining reform as more than repair, the relationship between imagination and leadership, routine thinking and the marketplace, and the ways our arguments affect democratic life. Throughout, we find humor, unforgettable metaphors, brilliant analysis, and elegance of style that give Hirschman such a singular voice.Featuring an introduction by Jeremy Adelman that places each of these essays in context as well as an insightful afterword by Emma Rothschild and Amartya Sen, The Essential Hirschman is the ideal introduction to Hirschman for a new generation of readers and a must-have collection for anyone seeking his most important writings in one book.

Genres: Economics, Politics

398 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Albert Otto Hirschman was an economist and the author of several books on political economy and political ideology. His first major contribution was in the area of development economics. Here he emphasized the need for unbalanced growth. He argued that disequilibria should be encouraged to stimulate growth and help mobilize resources, because developing countries are short of decision making skills. Key to this was encouraging industries with many linkages to other firms.

His later work was in political economy and there he advanced two schemata. The first describes the three basic possible responses to decline in firms or polities (quitting, speaking up, staying quiet) in Exit, Voice, and Loyalty (1970). The second describes the basic arguments made by conservatives (perversity, futility and jeopardy) in The Rhetoric of Reaction (1991).

Reviews

[Nick Klagge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed Hirschman's "Exit, Voice, and Loyalty," and was given this compilation of essays as a gift some years later. It is, as one might expect from a full-career retrospective, somewhat of a mixed bag. I did read it cover to cover, but I liked some essays and slogged through others. It was pretty easy to tell which ones I would like or not by the titles: "Rival Views of Market Society" yes, "A Generalized Linkage Approach with Special Reference to Staples" no. Generally, I was engaged by his more philosophical later works, and less so by his more technical earlier works.

I am definitely interested (ha) in reading his book "The Passions and the Interests," whose material is given briefer treatment in some of the more interesting essays in this volume.

[Matthew Martens · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bag of mixed stars, as collected from their scatter across a decades-long career. But there's some very handy stuff in here. I really enjoyed, for example, Hirschman's pocket history of the concept of interest, from its origins as a euphemism for usury to its present incarnation as a tautology for whatever an entity (personal, corporate, national, etc.) feels like doing.

[Sam Maloney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of Hirschman essays, but many are out of date or highly technical. You should consider avoiding unless you have some grounding in economic jargon. Otherwise, a very perceptive collection of writings that has given me something to think about.

[RJTK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This guy lived an incredibly interesting life and his thought is insightful. There is no fundamental theory he simply attempts to apply to every scenario, but rather embraces the complexity of society and the multifaceted motivations of man.

[Luciano · Rating 5 out of 5]

It only became more pertinent since it was published, a must for a world that is discovering that technology without morals leads to disaster.

[Marks54 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book of papers by Albert Hirschman that I began when I read Adelman's wonderful biography of him last fall. The papers span the range of his interests, some of which are less topical today. All are interesting and easy to read (for economics) papers). General readers can profit more from the bio.