Worldly Philosopher: The Odyssey of Albert O. Hirschman

by Jeremy Adelman

Overview

The life and times of one of the most provocative thinkers of the twentieth century

Worldly Philosopher chronicles the times and writings of Albert O. Hirschman, one of the twentieth century's most original and provocative thinkers. In this gripping biography, Jeremy Adelman tells the story of a man shaped by modern horrors and hopes, a worldly intellectual who fought for and wrote in defense of the values of tolerance and change. This is the first major account of Hirschman’s remarkable life, and a tale of the twentieth century as seen through the story of an astute and passionate observer. Adelman’s riveting narrative traces how Hirschman’s personal experiences shaped his unique intellectual perspective, and how his enduring legacy is one of hope, open-mindedness, and practical idealism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691155678
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	04/07/2013
Pages:	760
Product dimensions:	6.80(w) x 9.40(h) x 2.10(d)

About the Author

Jeremy Adelman is the Walter Samuel Carpenter III Professor of Spanish Civilization and Culture and director of the Council for International Teaching and Research at Princeton University. His books include Worlds Together, Worlds Apart: A History of the World and Sovereignty and Revolution in the Iberian Atlantic (Princeton).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction Mots Justes 1

1 The Garden 16

2 Berlin Is Burning 52

3 Proving Hamlet Wrong 85

4 The Hour of Courage 119

5 Crossings 153

6 Of Guns and Butter 187

7 The Last Battle 219

8 The Anthill 252

9 The Biography of a File 284

10 Colombia Years 295

11 Following My Truth 325

12 The Empirical Lantern 353

13 Sing the Epic 382

14 The God Who Helped 415

15 The Cold Monster 455

16 Man, the Stage 489

17 Body Parts 525

18 Disappointment 531

19 Social Science for Our Grandchildren 567

20 Reliving the Present 599

Conclusion Marc Chagall's Kiss 639

Afterword Sailing into the Wind 653

Notes 659

Bibliographic Essay 699

Index 709

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"This is an exceptional book. Hirschman's intellectual and political journey is described with sharpness and perspicacity. Family life, cultural encounters, and the imprints of a lifetime highlight the importance and significance of one of the most creative intellectuals of the twentieth century, who had a profound influence on so many people around the world, including myself."—Fernando Henrique Cardoso, former president of Brazil

"From the dying days of the Weimar Republic to the fall of the Berlin Wall, Albert Hirschman was a witness to the political turbulence of the twentieth century, shaping its intellectual trajectory while resisting overarching theories and academic convention at every turn. Meticulously researched, gracefully written, and deeply moving, this biography shines a light on not only one of the most fertile minds of the century, but the entire political and intellectual history of the period."—Dani Rodrik, Harvard University

"Worldly Philosopher is a brilliant book. It is at once a thrilling story, an inspiring and melancholy intellectual biography, and a history of the shifting involvements of social science in twentieth-century public life."—Emma Rothschild, author of The Inner Life of Empires: An Eighteenth-Century History

"Albert Hirschman is one of the most distinguished social scientists of the past half century. He has led an exciting and exemplary life, and Jeremy Adelman has researched and written an exhaustive biography. We are all in Adelman's debt for having followed Hirschman's journey, thoroughly and with sympathy."—Charles S. Maier, author of Among Empires: American Ascendancy and Its Predecessors

Editorial Reviews

Compared with more easily classifiable economists of his generation like Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson, [Hirschman's] name just doesn't come up that often. Then again, neither of those guys has yet been the subject of a doorstop of a biography like Worldly Philosopher, the hugely engaging 740-page epic that Jeremy Adelman has just delivered. The battle for posterity is far from over, and Hirschman has a formidable ally in Adelman, a Princeton historian who knows how to construct a narrative.

The New York Times Book Review - Justin Fox

"Adelman provides a masterful biography of one of the most remarkable economists of the 20th century, Albert O. Hirschman. Any one of Hirschman's many lives would provide ample fodder for an interesting book. . . . [Worldly Philosopher] is obviously a labor of love, in which Adelman painstakingly reconstructs Hirschman's private and intellectual life."

Choice

Winner of the 2014 Joseph J. Spengler Best Book Prize, History of Economics Society

One of Bloomberg/Businessweek Best Books of 2013, selected by Ollie Rehn

One of Financial Times (Alphachat)'s Econ Books of the Year for 2013

One of The Guardian Best Books of 2013, chosen by Malcolm Gladwell

Honorable Mention for the 2013 PROSE Award in Biography & Autobiography, Association of American Publishers

"[A] biography worthy of the man. Adelman brilliantly and beautifully brings Hirschman to life, giving us an unforgettable portrait of one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary intellectuals. . . . [M]agnificent."—-Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker

"[A] hugely engaging . . . epic."—-Justin Fox, New York Times Book Review

"[An] astonishing and moving biography. . . . Hirschman's work is more than interesting enough to justify a book (or two, or ten), but Adelman's achievement is to demonstrate, in novelistic detail, that he also lived an astounding life, full of narrow paths and ridiculously improbable twists and turns."—-Cass Sunstein, New York Review of Books

"[A] massive, erudite biography."—-Roger Lowenstein, Wall Street Journal

"[T]he winner [Enlightened Economist prize this year] is Jeremy Adelman's The Worldly Philosopher, a biography of Albert Hirschman. Hirschman's life story is extraordinary, and his early years make for a gripping tale. What I particularly enjoyed, though, was the portrait of an economist whose economics had a context in the realities of the countries Hirschman studied, their history and politics and culture, and in his wide reading in philosophy and other subjects. . . . A worthy winner—congratulations to Professor Adelman!"—-Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist

"This is the book I have looked forward to most all year and so far it does not disappoint."—-Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution

From the Publisher

"This is the first major account of Hirschman's remarkable life, and a tale of the twentieth century as seen through the story of an astute and passionate observer. Adelman's riveting narrative traces how Hirschman's personal experiences shaped his unique intellectual perspective, and how his enduring legacy is one of hope, open-mindedness, and practical idealism."

World Book Industry

Adelman's biography does a thorough job in shedding light not just on the academic and intellectual prowess of the great thinker, but also in informing the reader about the man whose life away from the intellectual world exhibited the same milieu of refreshing variety.

Mint - Prashanth Perumal

Worldly Philosopher will be the definitive work on Hirschman for some time. . . . If you liked Edmund de Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes, you will find Adelman's story of Hirschman's early life riveting—a book-club quality read. . . . Worldly Philosopher is a prodigious piece of research, lovingly told and immensely worthwhile for the new light it sheds on the odyssey of a writer whose small ideas add up to major insights.

American Prospect - Robert Kuttner

This is the book I have looked forward to most all year and so far it does not disappoint.

Marginal Revolution - Tyler Cowen

[A] massive, erudite biography.

Wall Street Journal - Roger Lowenstein

[An] astonishing and moving biography. . . . Hirschman's work is more than interesting enough to justify a book (or two, or ten), but Adelman's achievement is to demonstrate, in novelistic detail, that he also lived an astounding life, full of narrow paths and ridiculously improbable twists and turns.

New York Review of Books - Cass Sunstein

"[T]he only official biography of one of our generation's most extraordinary thinkers."

City Book Review