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[The following announcement was read by John Davis at the History of
Economics Society meeting, July 2002]
"Of all the things I've done with the Society over the last two years, this
gives me the greatest pleasure and is the greatest honor. I am happy to
announce that the 2002 Distinguished Fellow of the History of Economics
Society is Bill Barber.
I will read from Craufurd Goodwin's letter nominating Bill:
"He grew up in Abilene, Kansas, and went to Harvard on a scholarship in
1942. He departed soon after for wartime service, which included among
other things participation in the Battle of the Bulge (where he suffered
frostbite that still troubles him). He returned to Harvard in 1946 as a
history major. He was elected to a Rhodes Scholarship and studied
philosophy, politics, and economics at Balliol College, Oxford and
ultimately received a Ph.D. for a dissertation on The Economics of British
Central Africa (OUP, 1961).
Bill joined the faculty of Wesleyan University in 1957 and spent his entire
career there, including a period as acting president. He began teaching the
history of economics in 1957 and this led to his concise Penguin textbook,
A History of Economic Thought (1967), which remained in print for decades.
But Bill's career was more in development studies than in history. This
included a period as a collaborator of Gunnar Myrdal in preparation of the
Asian Drama.
Bill did not enter full-tilt into the history of economic thought until the
1970s and for this reason he was not involved in the very earliest days of
HOPE and the HES. But he came along soon after. His first major monograph
in the field was British Economic Thought and India, 1600-1858 (Clarendon,
1975). I remember being deeply impressed by the quality of the work he was
doing on this topic and as a result was led to seek him out to join a team
I was asked to put together in the 1970s for the Brookings Institution on
the history of the role of the economist in American government. In
addition to the sections of the Brookings' books on wage price and energy
policy that Bill completed, he continued to work on various topics in
American economic thought for most of the rest of his career, including (to
mention books only) nearly definitive studies of economics in the Hoover
and Roosevelt administrations (From New Era to New Deal and Design within
Disorder; both CUP) and the best thing yet done on economics in American
higher education (Breaking the Academic Mould [Wesleyan, 1988]) and most
recently The Works of Irving Fisher in 14 volumes (Pickering and Chatto).
Bill has been closely involved with the Society since the 1970s on various
committees and serving a term as president. Even in retirement he has
attended almost all the meetings. He has been a teacher of students from
Wesleyan who have come into our midst, has assisted our publication efforts
as referee and constructive critic, and in my view has served the best
possible role model for people in the field.
I have marveled at Bill's qualities ever since I first met him in the early
1970s. He is extremely smart, exceedingly widely read, and energetic enough
to put us all to shame. On top of it he is the nicest of men who has done
as much for our field and for the society as anyone I can think of. I am
confident that his is the perfect candidate for the distinguished fellow.
Yours sincerely,
Craufurd D. Goodwin
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