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[The following announcement was read by Dan Hammond at the History of 
Economics Society meeting, July 2003] 
 
 
 
Citation of Denis Patrick O'Brien 
2003 Distinguished Fellow 
History of Economics Society 
 
July 6, 2003 
 
The 2003 Distinguished Fellow of the History of Economics Society is 
Professor Denis Patrick O'Brien. 
 
Denis O'Brien is a colleague and friend a number of you, and has been a 
teacher of others. Yet I am sure there are some in attendance tonight who 
have never met him.  Especially for those of us who are not from Britain 
the opportunities to meet him are few, because Professor O'Brien is not an 
enthusiastic traveler or conferee. Indeed, we were unable to persuade him 
to cross the Atlantic from Durham, U.K. to Durham, U.S.A. to receive this 
award in person. Professor O'Brien is also not given to self-promotion. So 
even his scholarship is not as well known as it deserves to be. Perhaps 
this Distinguished Fellowship will be a corrective. For Denis O'Brien's 
scholarship is superb. His essays and books are a treat for the mind and 
spirit. 
 
Denis O'Brien began his career as an industrial economist, and his first 
publication was a piece in the Journal of Industrial Economics on patent 
protection in textiles. This was in 1964, shortly after he took a position 
as probationary lecturer at Queen's University, Belfast. O'Brien shortly 
thereafter began his doctoral thesis on the work of J. R. McCulloch, under 
the direction of R.D. Collison Black. His book, J. R. McCulloch, A Study in 
Classical Economics, was published in 1970. Of this work, a doctoral thesis 
I remind you, Donald Winch said: 
 
"This is the first full-length study of John Ramsay McCulloch=92s life and 
writings. Such is the thoroughness and finesse with which Dr. O'Brien has 
carried out his task that it can be said with some confidence that it will 
probably be the last. Some idea of the magnitude of the task can be gained 
from the fourteen pages needed to list McCulloch's writings." 
 
While searching for materials on McCulloch, O'Brien discovered the papers 
of Lord Overstone, which at the time were assumed to be lost. He edited the 
Overstone papers, and published them in three volumes from Cambridge 
University Press in 1971. 
 
In his books and articles Denis O'Brien has covered the entire waterfront 
of classical economics, writing on the lives and ideas of figures such as 
Thomas Joplin, Sir James Steuart, Mountiford Longfield, Robert Torrins, 
Henry Thornton, Richard Cantillon, as well as Smith and Ricardo. Of his 
1975 textbook, The Classical Economists, Mark Blaug wrote: 
 
"In short, from now on all histories of economic thought can start their 
story in 1870, because it is difficult to see how anyone can improve on 
Professor O'Brien's analysis of the century that preceded it." 
 
It may be that Blaug will soon be demonstrated wrong in this judgment, for 
Princeton University Press will publish a new edition of The Classical 
Economists next year. A reviewer of the new manuscript wrote: 
 
"O'Brien has done a masterful job of creating a second edition that is an 
important new contribution to scholarship. ... It is my considered opinion 
that The Classical Economists is the definitive work on classical economics 
 no other piece of scholarship is even remotely close to being its peer. 
This perception has only been solidified in this new edition." 
 
The reviewer also comments on Denis O'Brien: 
 
"He is his own man, with his own opinions, but he is also extremely 
catholic in his recognition of what constitutes good scholarship. This is 
of immense benefit to the book, as the literature on classical economics 
has been written from such an incredible diversity of perspectives, many 
(if not most) of which have something important to add to the 
conversation." 
 
O'Brien's attention has not been restricted to the classical period. He has 
a full-length book on Lionel Robbins, and articles on Hayek, Marshall, 
Edwin Cannan, Edgeworth, Frank Knight, Harry Johnson, Ragnar Frisch, James 
Meade and a number other economists. Nor has his work been restricted to 
individual economists. He edited an eight-volume History of Taxation for 
Pickering and Chatto and a three-volume set on The Foundations of Business 
Cycle Theory for Edward Elgar. 
 
He has also written prolifically and provocatively on methodology, urging 
economists to take care with and to make use of facts. Decrying economists' 
tendency to "play with models," O'Brien has been an effective advocate for 
a methodological approach that he identifies as "essentially the 18th 
century Scottish method," but one that also draws heavily on Alfred 
Marshall. I quote from O'Brien's inaugural lecture at Durham University: 
 
"What has really happened is that we have taken the fairly good ground 
floor of economic theory and built upon it a house of cards, or rather 
Tower of Babel. The basic framework of the ground floor is good. But 
instead of trying to fill in the framework with bricks, mortar and 
concrete, we carry on erecting scaffolding above. ... The original Tower of 
Babel was, I understand, built to make its occupants self-sufficient, 
perhaps to guard them against a second Flood; and our Tower has been built 
to provide its occupants with protection against getting wet through 
contact with the world." 
 
Denis O'Brien's contributions to the history and methodology of economics 
are marked by his conviction that economics and its history are of 
practical importance; they are marked by his determination to find facts 
and use them; by his bountiful intellectual energy, broad and deep 
knowledge of contemporary economic theory; and by his wonderful wit, and 
clear and compelling writing style. 
 
We are pleased to add Denis Patrick O'Brien to the roster of Distinguished 
Fellows of the History of Economics Society. Malcolm Rutherford will accept 
the award for Professor O'Brien. 
 
 
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