Douglass C. North papers, 1942-2012
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Summary
- Creator:
- North, Douglass Cecil
- Abstract:
- Douglass C. North (1920-2015) was a Nobel Prize winner the Spencer T. Olin Professor Emeritus in Arts and Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. This collection documents his professional life through his correspondence, writings, and professional and faculty activities. It forms part of the Economists' Papers Archive.
- Extent:
- 50 Linear Feet (100 boxes.)
- Language:
- Material in English.
- Collection ID:
- RL.00955
Background
- Scope and content:
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This collection chiefly consists of professional correspondence written and received by North, writings by him and other colleagues, and files on conferences attended by him. There are also materials related to courses that he taught. The collection documents his career as an economist and professor at the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Washington; Rice University; and Washington University in St. Louis, and it reflects his interests in economics, the economic history of the western world, transaction costs, economic development, institutional change, and industrialization and technology. More specifically, the papers document his long-standing interest in explaining institutional change and political economies without relying exclusively on neo-classical economic theories.
Among the correspondents are Yoram Barzel, Robert Bates, Reuven Brenner, Robert Clower, R. H. Coase, Robert Fogel, Robert Haveman, Robert Keohane, Simon Kuznets, Deirdre N. McCloskey, Emily Chamlee-Wright, Elinor Ostrom, Vernon Smith, T. N. Srinivasan, John J. Wallis and Barry R. Weingast. Some of these correspondents are also represented in the Writings series, which contains drafts, notes, and reprints of writings by North as well as writings by his colleagues.
North's secretary at Washington University at St. Louis, Fannie Batt, is an important figure in understanding the nature of this collection. After receiving the Nobel Prize in 1993, his correspondence expanded substantially, and Batt was tasked with handling it. She printed email for him from her email account. His responses to emails are not as frequent as one would expect; existing responses were often dictated by North and typed by Batt.
- Biographical / historical:
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Date Event 1920 Born in Cambridge, MA1941 Worked for one summer with Dorothea Lange, photographer; her husband, in Economics Department at University of California, convinced North to study economics1942 BA, University of California, Berkeley1942-1946 Served in US Merchant Marines1950-1983 Professor, University of Washington1952 PhD, University of California, Berkeley1956-1957 Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research1960-1966 Coeditor, Journal of Economic History1961 The Economic Growth of the United States, 1790 to 18601961-1966 Director, Institute of Economic Research, Washington University1966 Growth and Welfare in the American Past: A New Economic History1966-1967 Became interested in European economic history and spent the year in Geneva as Ford Faculty Fellow1971 (with L. E. Davis) Institutional Change and American Economic Growth1972 President, Economic History Association1973 (with R. P. Thomas) The Rise of the Western World: A New Economic HistoryVisiting Director, Centre de Recherche Historique, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes1979 Peterkin Professor of Political Economy, Rice University1981 Structure and Change in Economic History1981-1982 Pitt Professor of American Institutions, University of Cambridge1983 Henry R. Luce Professor of Law and Liberty and Professor of Economics and of History, Washington University in St. Louis; founded Center in Political Economy1990 Institutions, Institutional Change, and Economic Performance1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Robert W. Fogel1996 Fellow, British Academy1997 Advisor, "World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World," World Bank2005 Understanding the Process of Economic Change2009 (with John J. Wallis and Barry R. Weingast) Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History2012 (with John J. Wallis, Steven B. Webb and Barry R. Weingast) In the Shadow of Violence: Politics, Economics, and the Problems of Development2015 Died in Benzonia, MI - Acquisition information:
- The Douglass C. North papers were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library as gifts in 1993, 2000, 2008, and 2013.
- Processing information:
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Reprocessed by Catherine Herfeld, Paula Jeannet, Danilo Ramalho da Silva, and Emily Skarbek, August 2012; Tomas Kristofory and Meghan Lyon, 2018.
Encoded by Catherine Herfeld, Paula Jeannet, and Danilo Ramalho da Silva.
Accessions described in this collection guide: 1993-0275, 2000-0086, 2008-0109, and 2013-0195.
- Arrangement:
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The Douglass C. North papers are arranged into six series: Professional Correspondence, Conference and Seminars, Initiatives and Academic Life, Publishing, Teaching, and Writings.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Subjects
Click on terms below to find related finding aids on this site. For other related materials in the Duke University Libraries, search for these terms in the Catalog.
- Subjects:
- Economic development
Economic history -- Congresses
Economics -- Methodology
Economics -- Study and teaching -- United States
Industrialization
Institutional analysis
International economic relations
Keynesian economics
Nobel Prize winners
Transaction costs
Economists -- United States -- Correspondence - Names:
- Economists' Papers Archive
University of Washington. Department of Economics -- Faculty
Washington University (Saint Louis, Mo.). Department of Economics -- Faculty
North, Douglass Cecil
Contents
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Collection is open for research.
- Terms of access:
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- Preferred citation:
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[Identification of item], Douglass C. North papers, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Duke University.
- Permalink:
- https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m11p9w