The December 1973 memo transcribed below can be viewed as a last stand in anticipation of the retirement of Alexander Gerschenkron to continue to require Harvard graduate students in economics demonstrate a modest acquaintance with some economic history from somewhere or other. The Committee writing the report consisted of two professors, Abram Bergson (Soviet economy and comparative economics) and Albert O. Hirschman (by this time dedicated to work in matters of intellectual history) along with two Harvard economics graduate students, Deborah G. Clay-Mendez (b. 1949, Harvard Ph.D., 1981) and William D. White (b. 1945, Harvard Ph.D., 1975).
Cf. Harvard’s current distribution requirement (from a screen capture dated November 13, 2018 at the Wayback Machine)
The distribution requirement is fulfilled by taking an approved field course in Economic History, Political Economy or Behavioral. The purpose of the requirement is to ensure that students are exposed to non-standard ways of thinking about issues central to economics. The course must be passed with a grade of B or better.
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DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
January 9, 1974
To: Members of the Department of Economics
From: James S. Duesenberry, Chairman
NOTICE OF DEPARTMENT MEETING
There will be a meeting of the Department of Economics on Tuesday, January 15thin the Littauer Lounge from 4 to 6 p.m.
The main items on the Agenda will be a report of the Committee on Economic History Requirements and a discussion of theory requirements.
* * * * * * * * *
Course Offerings and Examinations in Economic History
As directed by the Chairman of the Economics department and the Chairman of the Graduate Instruction Committee, a Committee consisting of the undersigned has reviewed the graduate course offerings and examinations in economic history at Harvard. We have deliberated as a group a number of times, and have also solicited the opinions of persons not members of the committee, including graduate students in economics and faculty members offering courses in economic history and related fields. We focused on several related issues, and set forth below our recommendations on each in turn:
- Should there be an economic history requirement for graduate students in economics? We all agreed that there should be, and that the aim of such a requirement should be to assure that the student gains an understanding of processes of long-term economic change, and of the comparative role of economic and non-economic factors in such change. The requirement should also be a means by which the student becomes better acquainted with a variety of economic institutions other than our own contemporary ones.
- What sort of requirement is in order? In our view, normally the completion of work with an average grade of B+ or better in two semester courses in economic history or their equivalent. Should the student fail to achieve a grade of B+ or better in such courses, however, he may be allowed, on petition to the Committee on Economic History (see below), to complete the requirements by retaking the final examination in one or both of the courses in question. Alternatively, depending on the circumstances, the student might be asked to do under faculty guidance a research paper of suitable quality. As in the past, a creditable performance in an appropriate and suitably delimited oral examination should also signify completion of the requirement.
- In what specific fields of economic history may the requirement be completed? We agreed that the requirement should permit work in various fields of economic history relating to the experience of industrialized societies including among others those of Western Europe, the United States and Japan.
To that end, the Department has an obligation to see that appropriate courses in diverse fields are in fact offered to the student. Additional courses might be made available in other departments and through cross registration at MIT, the Business School and the like.
The Committee also considered whether work in economic development or comparative economic systems might be countered towards the requirement. It was agreed that one semester’s course work in one field or the other might be counted, but on the understanding that the courses in question must be substantially concerned with processes of long-term economic change and in a context in which substantial attention is given to the interplay between economic and non-economic factors, and between economic doctrines and developments. - How should the requirement be administered? We agreed that a Committee should be appointed by the Department to oversee the economic history requirement. It should be responsible particularly for assuring that in one way or another suitable courses are available, and for determining just what courses should be eligible for meeting the economic history requirement. It should also consider petitions such as are referred to in item 2, above, and should have responsibility for setting standards for and delimiting oral examinations.
Respectfully submitted
Deborah Clay
William White
Albert Hirschman
Abram Bergson, Chairman
December 26, 1973
Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. John Kenneth Galbraith Papers. Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 526, Folder: “Harvard University. Department of Economics: General Correspondence, 1967-1974 (1 of 8)”.
Image Source: Abram Bergson (From National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir written by Paul Samuelson); Albert O. Hirschman (From the Institute for Advanced Study Archives).