Albert O. Hirschman (1915–2012) was an acclaimed and influential economist and social scientist. He taught at Columbia University and Harvard University, and he was professor of social science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His best-known books include National Power and the Structure of Foreign Trade (1945), The Strategy of Economic Development (1958), Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States (1970), The Passions and the Interests: Political Arguments for Capitalism Before Its Triumph (1977), Shifting Involvements: Private Interest and Public Action (1982), and The Rhetoric of Reaction: Perversity, Futility, Jeopardy (1991).
