Albert Hirschman, influential social scientist, dies at 97

In a wide-ranging professional life, Albert Hirschman worked at prestigious colleges and institutes, wrote some of the most perceptive works of social science in his era, and acquired a devoted following of economists, political scientists and journalists.

Through his books, lectures and essays, Hirschman, who died Dec. 10 at 97, sought to apply rigorous and rational social-science scholarship to clashes of political ideology and economic impasses -- conflicts that have often fueled violence and repression. Having learned the stakes firsthand, he devoted his career to advancing economic development and the spread of democracy.

Raised in Germany in the aftermath of World War I, Hirschman witnessed the rise and spread of fascism in Europe in the 1930s and was credited with helping save hundreds of lives through his work with the anti-fascist underground before and during World War II.

His admirers found him remarkable in part because he maintained a fundamentally optimistic view of human nature despite the tumult he had seen. He rejected the notion that societal problems are intractable. His life, his biographer Jeremy Adelman once wrote, "can be seen as a parable of the horrors and hopes of the 20th century." Otto Albert Hirschmann -- his name later would be changed -- was born April 7, 1915, in Berlin to an assimilated family of Jewish origin. He was baptized a Protestant.

His father, a surgeon, died of cancer in 1933, the year that brought Adolf Hitler to power as German chancellor. Hirschman left Germany to pursue studies in France and later at the London School of Economics. At the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, he put his education on hold to join the anti-fascist forces that ultimately lost to Gen. Francisco Franco.

"I could not just sit and look on without doing anything," he once told an interviewer.

He eventually returned to his studies and received a doctorate in economics from the University of Trieste in Italy in 1938 -- the year Benito Mussolini's regime enacted anti-Semitic laws.

Hirschman served in the French army at the start of the war and went underground after France surrendered to the Germans in 1940. He made his way to Marseille, where he became second-in-command to Varian Fry, an American journalist who orchestrated the escape from Europe of 2,000 Jews and other refugees, including the artists Marc Chagall and Max Ernst.

Hirschman arrived in the United States in 1941 and worked briefly at the University of California at Berkeley before joining the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the CIA.

After the war, Hirschman worked for the U.S. government on the Marshall Plan to rebuild Europe.

He spent several years as an economist with the Federal Reserve Board, which sent him to Colombia for field work. The experience led to a lifelong interest and expertise in Latin American politics and economics.

Perhaps his most noted volume was "Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States" (1970). In essence, the book examined why some people remain loyal to an unsatisfactory institution but voice their opposition from within while other people opt to walk away.