Craufurd Goodwin: A Historian of Political Economy

Craufurd Goodwin sought to capture key economic challenges to the post–World–War II US economy and the way they were addressed by bringing together small teams of relevant federal government officials, economists at select private foundations and university economists. This approach generated volumes of insightful history on the major problems in the US economy after World War II and solutions tried at the time. The same themes infuse Craufurd’s last book on columnist Walter Lippmann whom Craufurd came increasingly to admire. Craufurd himself adopted something akin to Lippmann’s theory-only-after-evidence position, a choice not common among his university colleagues.