Fred Block

Fred L. Block is an American sociologist, and Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Davis. Block is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading economic and political sociologists. His interests are wide ranging. He has been noted as an influential follower of Karl Polanyi.

Block has served on the Board of the Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy since 1989 and was a Distinguished Scientific Visitor to the Republic of China in 1995. He has also written for The Nation, The American Prospect, In These Times, Commonweal, Boston Review, and Tikkun.

Block formerly taught at the University of Pennsylvania. He is married to Carole Joffe, a sociologist, author and activist for women's reproductive rights. They have two children.

Block first came to prominence for his dissertation which was later published as the Origins of International Economic Disorder: Study of United States International Monetary Policy from World War II to the Present. In this study he asserted what would become a career long interest in the destabilizing influence of unregulated capital flows across national borders. He would also publish an influential argument on the nature of the elite called The Ruling Class Does Not Rule, which began a decade long debate with social psychologist G. William Domhoff.

Block is the author of five major books: The Vampire State and Other Myths and Fallacies About The U.S. Economy (1996), Postindustrial Possibilities: A Critique of Economic Discourse (1990), The Mean Season: The Attack On the Welfare State (co-authored with Richard A. Cloward, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Frances Fox Piven) (1987), Revising State Theory: Essays In Politics and Postindustrialism (1987), and The Origins of International Economic Disorder: A Study of United States International Monetary Policy From World War II to the Present (1977).

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