Overview
Alvin Harvey Hansen (1887-1975), an economist, was the Littauer Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University from 1937 to 1957. Hansen introduced Keynesian economics to the United States in the 1930s and played a significant role in creating the Social Security System and the Council of Economic Advisors. The Papers of Alvin Harvey Hansen, including correspondence, research notes, and writings, document Hansen's academic and professional career chiefly from 1907 to 1975.
Dates
- Creation: 1907 - 1995
Creator
Researcher Access
Open for research with the following exceptions: Personnel and student records are closed for 80 years. Specific restrictions are noted at the folder level. Requires review by archivist.
Extent
5.64 cubic feet (17 document boxes, 1 pamphlet binder)The Papers of Alvin Harvey Hansen document Hansen's academic and professional career chiefly from 1907 to 1975. The collection is a valuable resource for the study of economics, an understanding of the Harvard School of macro-fiscal policy, and Hansen's views on national economic policymaking. Hansen was a prolific researcher, letter writer, and author, and thus much of the collection consists of his correspondence, published and unpublished articles, lectures, speeches, and course materials.
Correspondence in the collection documents Hansen's interaction with noted economists and his work for the United States government developing economic policy after World War II. Writings, speeches, and lectures illustrate Hansen's Keynesian approach to economic policy and detail his investigations of the Federal Reserve System, his study of business cycles, support of fiscal and monetary reform, and promotion of full-employment policies. Lecture notes and teaching files document Hansen's teaching activities at Harvard University. In addition, the collection details Hansen's participation at conferences on various topics related to economics. The collection also contains a limited number of biographical materials, including obituaries, biographical sketches, and essays by and about Hansen, documenting his accomplishments as a student, teacher, and economist.
Biographical note on Alvin Harvey Hansen
Alvin Harvey Hansen (1887-1975), an economist, was the Littauer Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University from 1937 to 1957. Hansen introduced Keynesian economics to the United States in the 1930s and played a significant role in creating the Social Security System and the Council of Economic Advisors.
Hansen graduated from Yankton College in South Dakota in 1910 and worked several years as a high school teacher, principal, and county school superintendent before completing graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin in 1918. He taught at Brown University (1916-1919) and the University of Minnesota (1919-1937) before joining the Harvard faculty in 1937 as the Littauer Professor of Political Economy, retiring in 1957.
Hansen wrote fifteen books covering a wide range of topics on economics, including an account of the Bretton Woods Conference, which established the World Bank. In addition, Hansen taught a new generation of Keynesian economists in his Harvard seminar on fiscal policy, including Paul Samuelson and James Tobin. His 1941 book on fiscal policy and business cycles was the first significant work in the United States to entirely support Keynes's analysis of the causes of the Great Depression, and Hansen used that analysis to support Keynes's view of deficit spending. In addition, Hansen endorsed the idea that the government should not put the main burden of inflation control on unemployment and advocated a combination of changes in tax rates, the money supply, and timely wage-price controls to control inflation.
During the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, Hansen influenced the shaping of fiscal policies as a member of numerous government commissions and as a consultant to the Federal Reserve Board, the Treasury Department, and the National Resources Planning Board. In 1935, he helped create the Social Security System, and in 1946 helped draft the Full Employment Act, which also established the Council of Economic Advisors. Hansen also served as vice-president of the American Statistical Association in 1937 and president of the American Economics Association in 1938.
After retiring from Harvard in 1957, Hansen taught at the University of Bombay (India) from 1957 to 1958 and at other American universities until he died in 1975.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into six series:
- Correspondence files, 1920-1975
- Correspondence, speeches, articles, and other records of Alvin H. Hansen, [circa 1918-1970s]
- Research notes, manuscripts, typescripts, and other records, [circa 1918-1970s]
- Lecture notes and other course material, [circa 1940s-1957]
- Biographical materials, correspondence, lectures, and writings, 1907-1993
- Biographical materials, correspondence, lecture invitations, and other records, 1907-1995
Acquisition Information
Specific acquisition information, when available, is noted at the series level.
- Gift of Mrs. Leroy S. Merrifield [Marian Hansen Merrifield], 1976 August 11; Accession 7934.
- Gift of Mrs. Leroy S. Merrifield [Marian Hansen Merrifield], 1976 September 2; Accession 7956.
- Gift of Mrs. Leroy S. Merrifield [Marian Hansen Merrifield], 1977 April 1; Accession 8086.
- Gift of Walter S. Salant, 1979 November 21; Accession 8801.
- Gift of Mrs. Leroy S. Merrifield [Marian Hansen Merrifield], 1991 August 15; Accession 12262.
- Gift of Marian Hansen Merrifield, 1996 June 19; Accession 13347.
- Gift of Marian Hansen Merrifield, 1999 May 18; Accession 13943.
References
- "Alvin Hansen." In Encyclopedia of World Biography Online. Detroit, MI: Gale, 1998. Gale In Context: Biography (accessed January 18, 2022).
Inventory update
This doucment last updated 2022 August 11.
Processing Information
This finding aid was created in January 2022 by Dominic P. Grandinetti.
Information for this finding aid was assembled from legacy paper inventories, reference sources, and container management data. The collection was not re-examined.
Processing and arrangement details of each series are noted at the series level.
Dates and titles supplied by the archivist appear in brackets.
In all respects, the archivist attempted to retain and preserve the original arrangement and existing relationships of the documents, as established by Alvin Harvey Hansen.
Alma ID
990006047920203941
Creator
- Title
- Hansen, Alvin H. (Alvin Harvey), 1887-1975. Papers of Alvin Harvey Hansen, 1907-1995: an inventory
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- hua03022
Repository Details
Part of the Harvard University Archives Repository
Holding nearly four centuries of materials, the Harvard University Archives is the principal repository for the institutional records of Harvard University and the personal archives of Harvard faculty, as well as collections related to students, alumni, Harvard-affiliates and other associated topics. The collections document the intellectual, cultural, administrative and social life of Harvard and the influence of the University as it emerged across the globe.
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