Economic historian Engerman honored

Engerman

he research of Stanley Engerman, economic historian and John H. Munro Professor of Economics and professor of history at the University, was celebrated last weekend with a conference framed by his work studying economic growth in the Americas. More than 40 participants from the United States and Europe were invited to attend

Engerman's research is acknowledged internationally for its impact on economics and history, especially the history of slavery. Of the 17 books and more than 100 articles he has co-authored or co-edited, his analysis with Nobel Laureate Robert W. Fogel on the economic underpinnings of slavery, titled Time on the Cross: The Economics of American Negro Slavery (1974), remains an important study for its reinterpretation of data about the daily lives of slaves and the economics of the plantation.

On the Rochester faculty for 38 years, Engerman is past president of the Economic History Association and the Social Science History Association. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he has been a member of many academic editorial and advisory boards.

"There are few economists who have contributed as much in a field as has Engerman in economic history," said Ronald Jones, chairman of the University's Department of Economics. "His office serves as a meeting place for scholars from around the globe, both to solicit advice from the master himself and to avail themselves of his enormous collection of relevant books, articles, and pamphlets."

His career includes a long collaboration with Fogel, as well as joint projects with leading historians and economic historians. He co-edited, with the late Robert Gallman, the three-volume Cambridge Economic History of the United States (1996, 2000) and co-edited with Seymour Drescher A Historical Guide to World Slavery (1998). In addition to Time on the Cross, which won the 1975 Bancroft Prize for American history, Engerman's co-edited works include Between Slavery and Free Labor: The Spanish-Speaking Caribbean in the Nineteenth Century (1985); British Capitalism and Caribbean Slavery (1987); The Lesser Antilles in the Age of European Expansion (1996); and Slavery: A Reader (2001).

"Professor Engerman is legendary for his generosity in supporting research in the economic history and the history communities through his comments about ongoing work," said Frank D. Lewis, professor of economics at Queen's University in Ontario. "This advice has significantly advanced the level of scholarship and pointed to important new lines of inquiry."

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