In this 1942 letter from the head of the Industrial Relations Section of the M.I.T. Department of Economics and Social Science, W. Rupert Maclaurin, to the economic historian Earl J. Hamilton of Duke University, we see that hiring a young economic historian was part of the plan “to build one of the leading departments in the country”. Professor Davis Rich Dewey retired in 1940. Courses in economic history were taught in the late 1940s by Karl Deutsch and then by Walt Rostow beginning in 1950. (See Peter Temin, The Rise and Fall of Economic History at MIT, History of Political Economy, Volume 46, Number suppl. 1: 337-350. Earlier and downloadable at MIT Economics Working Paper 13-11, June 5, 2013.)
____________________________
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS SECTION
Department of Economics and Social Science
CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS
APRIL 8, 1942
| W. Rupert Maclaurin Douglas McGregor Barbara Klingen Hagen Beatrice A. Rogers |
Douglass V. Brown |
Professor Earl J. Hamilton
Department of Economics
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina
Dear Professor Hamilton:
At the suggestion of Dr. Arthur Cole I am writing to ask if you know a really promising young man in the field of economic history who might be eligible for an opening that we have here at M. I. T.
Various members of our Department of Economics are initiating a series of studies which are designed to be of assistance in post-war reconstruction in the United States. These studies are being undertaken with the cooperation of industry and the government, as part of a larger program designed to analyze some of the basic, longer-range problems facing this country. Our group at M. I. T. will be concerned particularly with analyses of the opportunities for industrial development in the post-war world and some of the hindrances and restrictions which have been inhibiting development in the past.
As part of this general research program, and also of our plans for developing this Department, we would like very much to bring in a promising young economic historian who would be interested in making some historical studies in the general field of industrial development. We should like someone who would co-operate with the “Committee on Research in Economic History” of which Dr. Cole is chairman.
The administration at M. I. T. is anxious to build up the Departments of Economics and History. These two departments now come under Dr. Robert Caldwell, professor of history and dean of humanities. Whoever we brought in would divide his time to some extent between the Department of History and the Department of Economics.
Our Economics Department is undergoing substantial change and expansion at the present time, and we are attempting to build one of the leading departments in the country. There should therefore be significant opportunities for professional advancement for promising young men. We started last year a graduate program leading to a Ph.D. degree in industrial economics, and by next year we shall have a group of about twenty graduate students in this Department, primarily on a fellowship basis, from all over the country.
I know this is a hard time to find talent. We should only be interested in some young man who has an attractive personality, energy, and creative imagination. For this particular position here there is no point in our considering anybody who is not A. We are thinking of a young man under thirty-five who would come to us as an instructor or an assistant professor. The teaching load would be light, and we could arrange for travelling expenses and other research facilities.
The whole problem of selective service is a very difficult one to deal with under present conditions. As an engineering school with a research program in economics that is closely associated with a number of the leading government agencies in Washington, there is at least a good [chance that the local*] draft boards would grant deferment to a promising instructor in economic history here.
If you have any suggestions to make, I should greatly appreciate hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
[signed]
W. Rupert Maclaurin
[*A fold in the letter here covers all but the very top (sometimes bottoms) of the first four words so that I have suggested an interpolation consistent with what I see.]
Source: Duke University, Rubenstein Library, Earl J. Hamilton Papers, Box 2, Folder “Correspondence—Misc, 1930’s-1960s and n.d.”.
Image Source: (left) W. Rupert Maclaurin, from MIT Technique, 1944.; (right) Earl J. Hamilton (1937) from John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation website.