Robert Fogel

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Lore & Background

Fogel was born on July 1, 1926, in New York City, the son of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants from Odessa (1922). His brother, six years his senior, was his main intellectual influence in his youth. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in 1944. He was educated at Cornell University, where he majored in history with an economics minor, and became president of the campus branch of American Youth for Democracy, a communist organization. After graduation in 1948, he became a professional organizer for the Communist Party, during which time he approved the expulsion of future fellow historians of slavery Eugene Genovese and George Rawick. After working eight years as a professional organizer, he rejected communism as unscientific and attended Columbia University, where he studied under George Stigler and obtained an MA in economics in 1960. He received a PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1963 under advisor Simon Kuznets. Fogel began his research career as an assistant professor at the University of Rochester in 1960. In 1964 he moved to the University of Chicago as an associate professor. During this time he completed some of his most important works, including Time on the Cross (in collaboration with Stanley Engerman). In 1975 he left for Harvard University. In 1981 he returned to the University of Chicago, where he directed the newly created Center for Population Economics at the Booth School of Business and rose to the named chair of Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of American Institutions. He won the 1993 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Fogel married Enid Cassandra Morgan, an African-American woman, in 1949, and had two children. The couple faced significant difficulties at the time due to anti-miscegenation laws and prevalent sentiments against interracial marriages. He died on June 11, 2013, in Oak Lawn, Illinois, of a short illness, aged 86.

Reader's Guide

Fogel's significance lies in his pioneering use of cliometrics to challenge established historical narratives. His first major study, Railroads and American Economic Growth: Essays in Econometric History (1964), used quantitative methods to argue that railroads were not indispensable to U.S. economic growth. Examining the transportation of agricultural goods, Fogel compared the 1890 economy to a hypothetical 1890 economy without railroads, estimating the 'social savings' attributable to railroads at about 2.7% of 1890 GNP. His most famous and controversial work, Time on the Cross (1974), co-written with Stanley Engerman, argued that slavery was profitable for slave owners as economies of scale meant larger slave farms were more productive, per unit of labor, than northern farms. This contradicted the consensus that slavery was unprofitable and would die out. The book also claimed that slaves in the American South lived better than did many industrial workers in the North, based on plantation records, though the authors stated slaves were still exploited in ways not captured by those records. This portion created a firestorm of controversy. In 1989, Fogel published Without Consent or Contract: The Rise and Fall of American Slavery as a response to criticism, providing a moral indictment of slavery by referencing things such as the high infant mortality rate from overworked pregnant women and cruel slave hierarchies. His former colleague Deirdre McCloskey credits Fogel with 'reuniting economics and history'.

Did You Know?

• Fogel was president of the campus branch of American Youth for Democracy, a communist organization, while at Cornell University.
• After graduating in 1948, he became a professional organizer for the Communist Party and approved the expulsion of future historians Eugene Genovese and George Rawick.
• He married Enid Cassandra Morgan, an African-American woman, in 1949, and the couple faced significant difficulties due to anti-miscegenation laws.
• Fogel's PhD advisor at Johns Hopkins University was Simon Kuznets.
• He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1973.