----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- [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. ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]