Albert O. Hirschman, telle une cible mouvante

Albert Otto Hirschman was born on April 7th 1915, in an emancipated Jewish family from Berlin. He received his basic education at the French Lycée of this town, then spent two years at HEC School of Management in Paris. After having completed his doctoral studies in England and Italy, Hirschman went to the USA in December 1940. He spent most of his long academic career in this country. Atrue ?Swiss knife? of social sciences, he made fruitful contributions in economics, sociology, even political science. He has received many distinctions, among others: the Talcott Parsons Prize of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (in 1983 for his works in economics); the Toynbee Prize (for 1997-1998); the Thomas Jefferson Medal of the American Philosophical Society (in 1998); the Benjamin E. Lippincott Prize of the American Political Science Association (in 2003). Management science still awaits a major contribution based on one of his fruitful works.