Alexander Gerschenkron
| Alexander Gerschenkron | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Александр Гершенкрон |
| Born |
1 October 1904 Odessa, Russian Empire |
| Died | 26 October 1978 (aged 74) Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |
| Nationality | American Jew |
| Institution | Harvard University |
| Field | Economic history |
| School or tradition |
Historical School |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Influences | Max Weber |
| Influenced |
Alfred H. Conrad Albert Fishlow Deirdre McCloskey John R. Meyer Göran Ohlin() Henry Rosovsky Peter Temin |
Alexander Gerschenkron (Russian: Александр Гершенкрон; 1 October 1904 – 26 October 1978) was a Ukrainian-born American Jewish economic historian and professor at Harvard University, trained in the Austrian School of economics.
Born in Odessa, then part of the Russian Empire, Gerschenkron fled the country during the Russian Civil War in 1920 to Austria, where he attended the University of Vienna, earning a doctorate in 1928. After the Anschluss in 1938, he emigrated to the United States.
Gerschenkron was born in Odessa into an elite family of the Russian intelligentsia. When he was 16, he and his father left Russia during the period of the Bolshevik Revolution. They eventually settled in Vienna, Austria. There he taught himself languages including, German and Latin. In 1924, he enrolled in the University of Vienna's school of economics, graduating in 1928.
After graduation, Gerschenkron got married and had a child. He found work in Vienna as a representative for a Belgian motorcycle firm. He worked for the firm for three year, but then decided to commit himself to politics, in particular the Social Democrats. However, in 1934 the party ceased to exist after the Austrian Civil War.
In 1938, Gerschenkron and his family emigrated to the United States after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich. Charles Gulick, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, invited Gerschenkron to be his research assistant. Gerschenkron spent twelve months researching and writing to help produce Gulick’s book, Austria: From Habsburg to Hitler. He researched at the University of California, Berkeley, for five years and then in 1943 he moved to Washington, D. C., to join the Federal Reserve Board.
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