A few comments on Robin Neill's query. As I note in my  piece in the Elgar
Companion, Innis was offered a faculty position in the Economics
Department both in 1944 and in 1947.  I would have to look at my copies of
memos and correspondence further to see more fully what Innis said about
the reasons for turning down the position in each instance. I vaguely
recall that at one point, Innis stated something about an obligation to
stay in Canada to assist in building up
Economics and the Social Sciences there after the second world war; but I
would have to search further to pinpoint his precise statements or what
others may have said conveying such sentiments. But my recollection is
that he did express them.

What I can pinpoint now is that Innis also expressed reservations about
moving to Chicago due to the infighting and intrigues he perceived going
on between John Nef and the Economics department. In a 1943 letter to Earl
Hamilton Innis mentions friction between Nef and the Economics department
and states that he (Innis) doesn't want to get into fights. In a 1944
letter to Nef, Innis expresses concerns about having to waste years of his
career fighting to establish economic history at Chicago on the same
footing as economic theory under Knight and Viner.

I do not know or at least I cannot recall how much correspondence there
was between Knight and Innis in the 1930s. Checking the Guide to Frank
Knight's papers prepared by Ross Emmett might at least indicate when any
correspondence began between Innis and Knight.

David Mitch

 Apropos of Chicago in the 1940s.
>
> Ross wrote "Chicago considered hiring another economic historian twice
> in the 1940s; both times Harold Innis and Earl Hamilton were ranked
> highest by the faculty. Nef preferred Innis, whose vision of economic
> history was broad. Knight preferred Hamilton, who "grounded his work in
> perspectives from economic theory" (Mitch, p. 115). Knight won, and
> Hamilton was hired."
>
> My question may be trivial, but there are still some alive who would
> find the answer interesting.
>
> Legend has it that Innis was offered the position at Chicago, but turned
> it down because
> he did not want to leave Canada.  Further, Innis  and Knight wrote to
> one another fairly frequently over the 1930s.
>
> Is it possible that the position was offered to Innis in one of the two
> instances in which it was open?
>
> Robin Neill
>
>