Robert L. Heilbroner (March 24, 1919 – January 4, 2005) was an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and historian of economic thought. The author of some 20 books, Heilbroner was best known for ''The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers'' (1953), a survey of the lives and contributions of famous economists, notably

Adam Smith Adam Smith (baptized 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist and philosopher who was a pioneer in the thinking of political economy and key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment. Seen by some as "The Father of Economics"——� ...

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

, and

John Maynard Keynes John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, ( ; 5 June 1883 – 21 April 1946), was an English economist whose ideas fundamentally changed the theory and practice of macroeconomics and the economic policies of governments. Originally trained in ...

Early life and education

Heilbroner was born in 1919, 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 ...

, to a wealthy

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

family. His father, Louis Heilbroner, was a businessman who founded the men's clothing retailer Weber & Heilbroner. Robert graduated 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 ...

in 1940 with a ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'' degree in philosophy, government and economics. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, he served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

and worked at the Office of Price Control under

John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith (October 15, 1908 – April 29, 2006), also known as Ken Galbraith, was a Canadian-American economist, diplomat, public official, and intellectual. His books on economic topics were bestsellers from the 1950s through t ...

, the highly celebrated and controversial Institutionalist economist.

Career

After World War II, Heilbroner worked briefly as a banker and entered into academia in the 1950s as a research fellow at the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSS ...

. During this period, he was highly influenced by the German economist Adolph Lowe, who was a foremost representative of the German Historical School. In 1963, Heilbroner earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the

, where he was subsequently appointed

Norman Thomas Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. Early years Thomas was the ...

Professor of Economics in 1971, and where he remained for more than twenty years. He mainly taught History of Economic Thought courses at the New School. Although a highly unconventional economist, who regarded himself as more of a social theorist and "worldly philosopher" (philosopher pre-occupied with "worldly" affairs, such as economic structures), and who tended to integrate the disciplines of history, economics and philosophy, Heilbroner was nevertheless recognized by his peers as a prominent economist. He was elected Vice President of the

American Economic Association The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals acknowledged in business and academia. There are some 23,000 members. History and Constitution The AEA was esta ...

in 1972. He also came up with a way of classifying economies, as either Traditional (primarily agriculturally based, perhaps

subsistence economy A subsistence economy is an economy directed to basic subsistence (the provision of food, clothing, shelter) rather than to the market. Henceforth, "subsistence" is understood as supporting oneself at a minimum level. Often, the subsistence econo ...

), Command (centrally

planned economy A planned economy is a type of economic system where investment, production and the allocation of capital goods takes place according to economy-wide economic plans and production plans. A planned economy may use centralized, decentralized, ...

, often involving the state), Market (

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private ...

), or Mixed. Though an outspoken

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

for nearly his entire career, Heilbroner famously wrote in a 1989 '' New Yorker'' article prior to the collapse of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

: :Less than 75 years after it officially began, the contest between capitalism and socialism is over: capitalism has won... Capitalism organizes the material affairs of humankind more satisfactorily than socialism.Boaz, David (Jan 21, 2005). He further wrote in ''

Dissent Dissent is an opinion, philosophy or sentiment of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or policy enforced under the authority of a government, political party or other entity or individual. A dissenting person may be referred to as ...

'' in 1992 that "capitalism has been as unmistakable a success as socialism has been a failure" and complimented

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 ...

Friedrich Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Hayek ...

, and

Ludwig von Mises Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises (; 29 September 1881 – 10 October 1973) was an Austrian School economist, historian, logician, and sociologist. Mises wrote and lectured extensively on the societal contributions of classical liberalism. He is ...

on their insistence of the free market's superiority. He emphasized that "democratic liberties have not yet appeared, except fleetingly, in any nation that has declared itself to be fundamentally anticapitalist." However, Heilbroner's preferred capitalist model was the highly redistributionist

welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equita ...

s of

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...

; he stated that his model society was "a slightly idealized

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

Family

Robert Heilbroner had two sons,

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

and Peter Heilbroner, and four grandchildren, Quentin, Katrina, Henry, and Sam. Heilbroner died in 2005 in New York City at the age of 85.

''The Worldly Philosophers''

Published in 1953, ''The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers'' (1953) has sold nearly four million copies, making it the second-best-selling economics text of all time (the first being

Paul Samuelson Paul Anthony Samuelson (May 15, 1915 – December 13, 2009) was an American economist who was the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. When awarding the prize in 1970, the Swedish Royal Academies stated that he " ...

's ''

Economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics anal ...

'', a highly popular university textbook). The seventh edition of the book, published in 1999, included a new final chapter entitled "The End of Worldly Philosophy?", which included both a grim view on the current state of economics as well as a hopeful vision for a "reborn worldly philosophy" that incorporated

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

aspects of

. Its content is: # Introduction # The Economic Revolution # The Wonderful World of

# The Gloomy Presentiments of Parson

Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book ''An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Mal ...

and

David Ricardo David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist. He was one of the most influential of the classical economists along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith and James Mill. Ricardo was also a politician, and a ...

# The Dreams of the

Utopian Socialists Utopian socialism is the term often used to describe the first current of modern socialism and socialist thought as exemplified by the work of Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, Étienne Cabet, and Robert Owen. Utopian socialism is often de ...

#: about

Robert Owen Robert Owen (; 14 May 1771 – 17 November 1858) was a Welsh people, Welsh textile manufacturer, philanthropist and social reformer, and a founder of utopian socialism and the cooperative movement. He strove to improve factory working conditio ...

Henri de Saint-Simon Claude Henri de Rouvroy, comte de Saint-Simon (17 October 1760 – 19 May 1825), often referred to as Henri de Saint-Simon (), was a French political, economic and socialist theorist and businessman whose thought had a substantial influence on p ...

Charles Fourier François Marie Charles Fourier (;; 7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837) was a French philosopher, an influential early socialist thinker and one of the founders of utopian socialism. Some of Fourier's social and moral views, held to be radical ...

, and

John Stuart Mill John Stuart Mill (20 May 1806 – 7 May 1873) was an English philosopher, political economist, Member of Parliament (MP) and civil servant. One of the most influential thinkers in the history of classical liberalism, he contributed widely to ...

# The Inexorable System of

# The Victorian World and the Underworld of Economics #: about

Francis Ysidro Edgeworth Francis Ysidro Edgeworth (8 February 1845 – 13 February 1926) was an Anglo-Irish philosopher and political economist who made significant contributions to the methods of statistics during the 1880s. From 1891 onward, he was appointed th ...

Frederic Bastiat Frederic may refer to: Places United States * Frederic, Wisconsin, a village in Polk County * Frederic Township, Michigan, a township in Crawford County ** Frederic, Michigan, an unincorporated community Other uses * Frederic (band), a Japanese r ...

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...

John A. Hobson John Atkinson Hobson (6 July 1858 – 1 April 1940) was an English economist and social scientist. Hobson is best known for his writing on imperialism, which influenced Vladimir Lenin, and his theory of underconsumption. His principal and ea ...

, and

Alfred Marshall Alfred Marshall (26 July 1842 – 13 July 1924) was an English economist, and was one of the most influential economists of his time. His book '' Principles of Economics'' (1890) was the dominant economic textbook in England for many years. I ...

# The Savage Society of

Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Bunde Veblen (July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was a Norwegian-American economist and sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known critic of capitalism. In his best-known book, ''The Theory of the Leisure Class'' ...

# The Heresies of

# The Contradictions of

Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (; February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an Austrian-born political economist. He served briefly as Finance Minister of German-Austria in 1919. In 1932, he emigrated to the United States to become a professor at H ...

# The End of the Worldly Philosophy?

Bibliography

partial list: *''Economic Relevance: A Second Look''(with Arthur Ford), 1971, Goodyear Publishing Company, Inc., Palisades, California. *''The Worldly Philosophers'', 1953, Simon & Schuster, 7th edition, 1999: *''The Quest For Wealth: A Study of Acquisitive Man'', Simon & Schuster, 1956 *''The Future as History'', Harper & Row, 1960 *''The Making of Economic Society'', 1963, Prentice Hall, 10th edition 1992, 11th edition 2001: (the first edition served as his PhD dissertation) *''The Great Ascent: The Struggle for Economic Development In Our Time'', Harper & Row, 1963 *''A Primer on Government Spending'' (with

Peter L. Bernstein Peter Lewyn Bernstein (January 22, 1919 – June 5, 2009) was an American financial historian, economist and educator whose development and refinement of the efficient-market hypothesis made him one of the country's best known authorities in ...

), New York: Vintage Books, 1963 *''The Limits of American Capitalism'', Harper & Row, 1966 *"Do Machines Make History?" ''

Technology and Culture ''Technology and Culture'' is a quarterly academic journal founded in 1959. It is an official publication of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), whose members routinely refer to it as "T&C." Besides scholarly articles and critical ...

'' 8 (July 1967): 335-345. * ''The Economic Problem'', 1968, Prentice Hall, First Edition, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey (1968; later editions with

James K. Galbraith James Kenneth Galbraith (born January 29, 1952) is an American economist. He is currently a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and at the Department of Government, University of Texas at Austin. He is also a Senior Schol ...

Lester Thurow Lester Carl Thurow (May 7, 1938 – March 25, 2016) was an American political economist, former dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management, and author of books on economic topics. Education Born in Livingston, Montana, Thurow received his B.A. i ...

) * ''Understanding Macroeconomics'',1972, Fourth Edition, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewoods Cliffs, New Jersey, * ''Between Capitalism and Socialism. Essays in Political Economics.'' Oct. 1970, Vintage Books and Random House. (A compilation of scattered publications.) *''An Inquiry into the Human Prospect'', 1974, W. W. Norton, 2nd edition 1980: , R. S. Means Company, 3rd edition 1991: *''Business Civilization in Decline'', Marion Boyars Pubs. Ltd., 1976. Also, Pelican Books, 1977: *''Marxism: For and Against''. 1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1980. *''The Economic Transformation of America: 1600 to the Present''. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977; 2d ed. (with Aaron Singer), 1984; 4th edition (Wadsworth Publishing), 1998, . *''Economics Explained: Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works and Where It's Going'' (with

), 1982, 4th edition, 1998, *''The Nature and Logic of Capitalism'', 1985, W. W. Norton, *''Behind the Veil of Economics: Essays in the Worldly Philosophy'', 1988, W. W. Norton, *''The Debt and Deficit: False Alarms/Real Possibilities'' (with

), 1989, W. W. Norton, *"Analysis and Vision in the History of Modern Economic Thought." ''Journal of Economic Literature'' (September 1990): 1097-1114. *''21st Century Capitalism'', 1993, W. W. Norton hardcover: , 1994 paperback: . *" Technological Determinism Revisited." In ''Does Technology Drive History? The Dilemma of Technological Determinism'', edited by Merritt Roe Smith and

Leo Marx Leo Marx (November 15, 1919 – March 8, 2022) was an American historian, literary critic, and educator. He was Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is known for his works in the fiel ...

, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994. *''The Crisis of Vision in Modern Economic Thought''. (with William S. Milberg), 1995, Cambridge University Press, *''Teachings from the Worldly Philosophy'', W. W. Norton, 1996, *''The Economic Transformation of America Since 1865'' (with Alan Singer), Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1997,

Awards

* 1979

Gerald Loeb Award The Gerald Loeb Award, also referred to as the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism, is a recognition of excellence in journalism, especially in the fields of business, finance and the economy. The award was estab ...

Honorable Mention for Magazines * 1984 Gerald Loeb Award for Editorial/Commentary for "Economic Prospects" * 1985 Gerald Loeb Special Award for "The Deficit" * 1988 Gerald Loeb Award for Magazines for "Hard Times"

References

External links

''Reason Magazine'' article on Heilbroner
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Heilbroner, Robert 1919 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American historians Economic historians Economists from New York (state) American socialists Jewish socialists American people of German-Jewish descent Historians of economic thought Historians of technology Historians of the United States Harvard University alumni The New School faculty Jewish American historians American male non-fiction writers Jewish American social scientists Historians from New York (state) 20th-century American economists Gerald Loeb Award winners for Columns, Commentary, and Editorials Gerald Loeb Award winners for Magazines Gerald Loeb Special Award winners United States Army personnel of World War II

Early life and education

Career

Family

''The Worldly Philosophers''

Bibliography

Awards

References

Further reading

External links