Robert Hessen (born 1936) is an American

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with th ...

and business historian. He is a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

at the Graduate School of Business at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

and a senior

research fellow A research fellow is an academic research position at a university or a similar research institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a pr ...

at Stanford's

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, a ...

. He is an

Objectivist Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievemen ...

and has authored several books, analyzing business and economic issues from an Objectivist perspective.

Early life and education

Robert Hessen was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He received his

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

, his

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

, and then his

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

Career

Prior to joining the Hoover Institution and taking his current position at Stanford, he taught at the

Graduate School of Business at Columbia University Columbia Business School (CBS) is the business school of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1916, Columbia Business School is one of six Ivy League business schools and is one of the oldest busi ...

. He was associated with philosopher

Ayn Rand Alice O'Connor (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum;, . Most sources transliterate her given name as either ''Alisa'' or ''Alissa''. , 1905 – March 6, 1982), better known by her pen name Ayn Rand (), was a Russian-born American writer and p ...

for 25 years, contributed articles to two of her periodicals, as well as her book, '' Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal''. He was a featured commentator on

Milton Friedman Milton Friedman (; July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006) was an American economist and statistician who received the 1976 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his research on consumption analysis, monetary history and theory and the ...

's award-winning PBS television documentary series, '' Free to Choose''. In 1985, Hessen became one of the founding board of governors of the Ayn Rand Institute. Among the books he has written are ''Steel Titan: The Life of

Charles M. Schwab Charles Michael Schwab (February 18, 1862 – September 18, 1939) was an American steel magnate. Under his leadership, Bethlehem Steel became the second-largest steel maker in the United States, and one of the most important heavy manufacturer ...

'' and ''In Defense of the Corporation''. He is also the editor of the multi-volume series ''Hoover Archival Documentaries''. He has featured shorter works in such diverse publications as ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', '' Barron's'', '' Business History Review'', ''

Labor History Labor history or labour history is a sub-discipline of social history which specialises on the history of the working classes and the labor movement. Labor historians may concern themselves with issues of gender, race, ethnicity, and other fac ...

'', '' The Hastings Law Journal'' and the '' Journal of Law and Economics''. His essays, discussing capitalism and presenting a private-property-and-contractual model of corporations, were published in the ''Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics'' and the '' Concise Encyclopedia of Economics''.

Publications

Book reviews

* Review of '' Economics in One Lesson'', by Henry Hazlitt. '' The Objectivist Newsletter'' (February 1962). * Review of ''Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, 1917 to 1930'', by

Antony C. Sutton Antony Cyril Sutton (February 14, 1925 – June 17, 2002) was a British-American writer, researcher, economist, and professor. Early life and education Antony C. Sutton was born in London on February 14, 1925 to Edward Ceril Sutton and Marjorie ...

. ''

The Objectivist Objectivist periodicals are a variety of academic journals, magazines, and newsletters with an editorial perspective explicitly based on Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism. Several early Objectivist periodicals were edited by Rand. She later en ...

'', vol. 9, no. 1 (January 1970), pp. 9-15. Published and edited by

References

External links

Biographical profile
at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hessen, Robert Columbia University alumni 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Economic historians Objectivism scholars Harvard University alumni Stanford University Graduate School of Business faculty Objectivists Living people 1936 births Ayn Rand Institute American male non-fiction writers