Early Years, Education, and Professional Career
Hansen was born to Danish immigrant parents at Viborg, South Dakota on the South Dakota frontier. After an English degree at Yankton College, he took his PhD in economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1918. He worked with institutionalists John R. Commons and Richard T. Ely, but did not adopt their approach. After his doctorate, Hansen taught at Brown University until his appointment at the University of Minnesota in 1923, where he specialized in business cycles. He consulted frequently in Washington and helped Edwin E. Witte to help draft the Social Security Act of 1935. In 1937 Hansen was appointed Lucius N. Littauer Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University.
Read more about this topic: Alvin Hansen
Famous quotes containing the words early, professional and/or career:
“I looked at my daughters, and my boyhood picture, and appreciated the gift of parenthood, at that moment, more than any other gift I have ever been given. For what person, except one’s own children, would want so deeply and sincerely to have shared your childhood? Who else would think your insignificant and petty life so precious in the living, so rich in its expressiveness, that it would be worth partaking of what you were, to understand what you are?”
—Gerald Early (20th century)
“The belief that there are final and immutable answers, and that the professional expert has them, is one that mothers and professionals tend to reinforce in each other. They both have a need to believe it. They both seem to agree, too, that if the professional’s prescription doesn’t work it is probably because of the mother’s inadequacy.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“The 19-year-old Diana ... decided to make her career that of wife. Today that can be a very, very iffy line of work.... And what sometimes happens to the women who pursue it is the best argument imaginable for teaching girls that they should always be able to take care of themselves.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)