This interdisciplinary moment comes as the result of my shallow acquaintance with American institutional economics. In the previous posting I ran across the name of M. S. Handman who was listed #2 in Frank Knight’s list of American Institutional Economists after Veblen but with the sarcastic addition “Perhaps the one true example [i.e. Veblen], except Handman, who has written little.” Knight then goes on to put Handman’s name in the #2 position without any bibliographic reference. The name rang no bells with me to be honest.
In the meantime I have consulted JSTOR to obtain a very convenient history of American Institutional Economics, Malcolm Rutherford’s Presidential Address before the Association for Evolutionary Economics: “Towards a History of American Institutional Economics”, Journal of Economic Issues, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Jun., 2009), pp. 308-318. This provides us with more context.
Max Handman received his Ph.D. in Sociology and Anthropology rather than in Political Economy. The title of his thesis was “The Beginnings of the Social Philosophy of Karl Marx.”
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[from the University of Michigan]
Memorial
Max Sylvius Handman
LSA Minutes
On December 26, 1939, while the University was in recess, Professor Max S. Handman, one of its outstanding personalities, died of coronary thrombosis; a scant two weeks after he had passed his fifty-fourth birthday. The first of the heart attacks to which he finally succumbed occurred in the spring of 1938, while he was devoting his sabbatical leave to a research project in South America. He returned to Ann Arbor early that summer and carefully nursed his ailment, both at the University Hospital and at home, to the end of the first semester of the academic year 1938-39. During the second semester of that year he was able to resume his teaching, and during the summer of 1939, though not a member of the teaching staff, he participated actively in the Institute of Latin-American Studies which was being conducted by the Summer Session. He then prepared and delivered his last paper, soon to be published, on the historical function of foreign investments in Latin-America. He was planning, of course, to continue his regular work during the present academic year, but a further severe attack shortly before the opening of the University in the fall confined him to bed till his untimely death. While the course of this illness afforded some preparation for the fatal outcome to his associates and friends, the actual loss of our widely known and beloved colleague came as a profound and lamented shock to all who knew him.
Max Sylvius Handman, son of Melchior and Rosa (Sayman) Handman, was born in Roman, Rumania, December 13, 1885. He remained in his native land into his eighteenth year. His father was engaged in commercial pursuits, but was dominated by a deep love of learning. In this environment the seeds were sown for a lifetime of scholarly interest and devotion. Young Handman received instruction at home as well as all available public schooling, through the Gymnasium at Roman. Upon his arrival in this country in 1903 he proceeded immediately to the far west, where he devoted himself for a period of two years to working at miscellaneous tasks and learning the English language. Two years later, in 1907, he received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oregon. Then followed ten years of graduate study, both at American and foreign institutions, including the University of Chicago, the University of Missouri, Columbia University, the College de France, and the University of Berlin. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Chicago in 1917, and during the same year he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Some three years earlier, on September 3, 1914, he had married Della Dopplemayer of Marshall, Texas, after he had established himself as a young instructor.
His teaching experience, like his academic training, embraced a number of institutions. In 1913 he served as Docent in Sociology at the University of Chicago; from 1913 to 1916 he was Instructor in Sociology at the University of Missouri; from 1917 to 1926 he was Professor of Sociology, and from 1926 to 1931 Professor of Economics, at the University of Texas; and during the academic year 1930-31, just before he left Texas, he was Visiting Professor of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. From 1931 till his death he was Professor of Economics at the University of Michigan. During this relatively brief period he devoted himself on the instructional side to economic theory, labor economics, the history of economic thought, economic history, European economic problems, and Latin-American economic problems. While in recent years his independent studies were largely in the latter two fields, he adjusted himself in a fine spirit of cooperation to the curricular needs of the Department of Economics, and his qualifications were so diverse and his personality so stimulating that these varied tasks were entrusted to him with unquestioning confidence and were performed by him with high competence.
The breadth of Professor Handman’s interests is further evidenced by his outside contacts and activities of an academic and public character. In 1918 he served as a special investigator for the Library of Congress and as a member of the Committee on Public Information; and he was also attached, during the same year, to the staff of the United States Inquiry on Terms of Peace. In 1919 he was Director of the Red Cross Social Service Institute for Texas; in 1924 he was President of the Texas Conference for Social Welfare, holding at the same time, and for a number of years, the position of Trustee of the Texas Committee on Prisons and Prison Labor; and for a period of some six or seven years, from 1926 to 1932, he served in various capacities as a member of the National Conference of Social Work. In 1929-30 he was a special investigator for the National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement (the so-called Wickersham Commission); and for a period of three years, from 1931 to 1934, he represented the American Economic Association on the Social Science Research Council. In the summer of 1932 he was sent to Rumania by the Council to study race and culture contacts in that territory, the results being published as a chapter on conflict and equilibrium in a border area; and in connection with this visit he was decorated by the Rumanian Government as Knight, First Class, of the Order of Cultural Merit.
For the most part Professor Handman’s publications are more noted for the range of their subject matter and the suggestiveness of their approach than for the detailed factual or analytical treatment accorded by thorn to the varied matters with which they deal. His only book-length manuscript, a socio-economic study dealing with standards of living and pecuniary valuation, he did not deem ripe for publication, although he labored upon it for many years. His score or more of journal contributions deal in part with concrete social and economic conditions in Texas and Mexico, particularly in their reciprocal impacts; but his more generalized writings, reflecting a broad philosophical attack upon the questions at issue, are the papers of primary significance. He has written illuminatingly, for example, on the sociological methods of Pareto, on scientific trends in economics, on economic history and the economist, on conflicting ideologies in the American labor movement, on the sentiment of nationalism, on the bureaucratic culture pattern and political revolution, on war, economic motives, and economic symbols. These writings cannot be cramped into the traditional molds of the established disciplines. They embrace, with varying degrees of emphasis, the fields of sociology, economics, psychology, political science, and history. His approach was that of the so-called social sciences as a group, rather than of more or less artificially delimited segments of the field; and while he chiefly charted channels of thought through this means, rather than cultivated intensively the areas of his special interest, he performed his chosen tasks with much knowledge and deep insight.
For such results his long training and experience in both sociology and economics were not alone responsible; of equal importance was the broadening effect of his enormously wide reading and extensive travel. His great library was in no sense the reflection of a collector’s hobby. Visitors to his home, earlier in Austin and later in Ann Arbor, were frequently amazed at his ability to locate without the slightest difficulty any book he wanted from among his many thousands of uncatalogued volumes; and what is much more significant, as those who ever had the privilege of conversing with him at any length repeatedly learned, he knew what was in his books. He wrote and spoke from a full mind, which was also enriched by personal contacts and observations in much travel in Europe and the Americas. His great linguistic facility–embracing the spoken tongue as well as the written word in French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Rumanian–rendered these travels a source of genuine enlightenment in the various fields of his interest. These factors, and not merely his actual publication record, contributed to Professor Handman’s wide recognition as a scholar. His professional colleagues in all parts of the country–particularly among the sociologists, economic historians, and students of Latin-America–entertained the highest respect and admiration for his knowledge and understanding. His counsel was sought often and in numerous quarters, and the meetings of the learned societies were very few in which he was not invited to participate as critic of the contributions of his older as well as younger colleagues.
In the last analysis, however, Professor Handman’s most significant service was rendered as a stimulating teacher and associate, who exerted a large influence upon the human beings with whom he came into contact. He was a highly cultivated gentleman, of broad sympathies and incisive understanding, who labored always in furtherance of human welfare. His great store of knowledge was not confined to the social sciences. He was steeped in general history, literature, philosophy, music, and the arts. The spirit molded by these humanistic influences was directed to the improvement of social living, in the narrower range of personal contacts as well as in the more complicated relationships of the great society. Toward this end he gave of himself unstintingly to his students, his associates, and the general community. Because of his lofty ideals, intellectual integrity, and endearing personality, he evoked satisfying and even gratifying responses throughout his career. That he was affectionately known to so many, both old and young, as Uncle Max was no mere accident. He built well and fruitfully. His memory will long endure.
D. H. Parker,
P. E. James,
I. L. Sharfman, Chairman
Source (also of image): University of Michigan Faculty History Project.
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[from the University of Texas]
IN MEMORIAM
MAX SYLVIUS HANDMAN
Max Sylvius Handman, professor of sociology and economics, died in December of 1939.
Professor Handman was born on December 13, 1885, in Roman, Romania. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Oregon in 1907 and a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1917.
Dr. Handman taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Missouri. He joined the faculty of The University of Texas at Austin in 1917 and resigned in 1931, when he accepted a position at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
Professor Handman served on the Committee on Public Information in 1918. He was a special investigator for the Library of Congress and for the Wickersham Commission on Law Enforcement. He was also president of the Texas Conference on Social Work in 1924.
During the early 1930s Professor Handman was recalled to Romania by King Carol to carry out a study on the problems of minority populations. He was later decorated by King Carol with the Order of Cultural Merit, Knight, first class, for his service.
<signed>
John R. Durbin, Secretary
The General Faculty