It Was 25 Years Ago Today

Steven Horwitz

Well maybe not exactly today, but sometime that early August anyway, I packed my belongings in a U-Haul and hitched it to my 1985 Mercury Lynx and headed eastward to start graduate school at a place outside Washington DC that pretty much no one had ever heard of at the time.  It was a gamble, but I knew it was the place I wanted to be and, having visited a few months before, I knew it had the people I wanted to work with.  Talk about your right decisions and good gambles!  Not only was GMU the place that made me professionally what I am today ("the stupidest man alive?" -  Shut up, DeLong!), it was also the place where I met my lovely wife.  The professional and personal halves of my life have been enjoyable and successful beyond my dreams of 25 years ago, and the decision to Go East, Young Man was the reason why.

I think all of us who were there at the time agree that it was an amazing experience and as ideal a combination of scholarly seriousness and interpersonal comraderie as one can hope to have.  The time I spent there this past year made clear that Pete has kept that atmosphere intact and upped the ambition level of his students well beyond where we were back then. 

The realization that it was 25 years ago also makes me reflect on two faculty members there in particular.  It is now almost 9 years since Don Lavoie passed away and it is hard to capture the impact Don had on Pete, Dave, and me.  Don had his flaws, but his passion for ideas and for human freedom, and the way he treated us as colleagues almost from day one, remains the model for graduate education.

The other is Karen Vaughn.  Karen has retired and dropped off the radar screen, but for those of you who have come to Austrian economics in the last few years and perhaps heard little of Karen, you should realize how central she was to building GMU in the early years.  She was instrumental in bringing the Public Choice center to Fairfax, she was a top-flight historian of thought who knew enough big names in the discipline to get grad students connected, and she was department chair throughout the mid and late 80s, doing her best to juggle the complicated egos that defined that department even then.  More than all that, Karen was a mentor to me in a whole variety of ways, as well as working to create a full time visting position for the senior grad students that served Pete and me well at a time when the graduate fellowships were, suffice it to say, rather meagre.  Karen's Cambridge book is excellent, but her other long-run contribution was the work she did in building the GMU program in the early years and in mentoring goofballs like Pete, Dave, and me.  She is often forgotten in the broad-sweep histories of post-revival Austrian economics, so my realizing that it was 25 years ago today provides an opportunity to recognize how much Karen meant to us back then and to thank her for it.

I can think of no better way to celebrate this anniversary than spending a week at FEE on the "other side of the desk" from where I was as a punk 25 years ago.

I will also try to do a little live-blogging, but I have several writing projects I have to work on while I'm there, so no promises.

Comments

[Jerry O'Driscoll]

Good post.

Karen's role in the Austrian revival and growth was very important. As was Don's, of course.

[Barkley Rosser]

I mourn the early death of Don and agree with all the remarks about Karen. OTOH, nostalgia can be a dangerous disease.

[Mario Rizzo]

"I can think of no better way to celebrate this anniversary than spending a week at FEE on the "other side of the desk" from where I was as a punk 25 years ago."

Yes, Pete and you were quite something.

[Chip Hessenflow]

Wow! Great memories.

I truly was blessed to transfer to Mason. I remember Block stating, "Son, I don't know why your transferred but don't expect a cakewalk." That was my first experience in the Economics department.

I took two courses taught by Dr. Vaughn. She was a wonderful mentor to me. She also was the person who told me to get a "real job" (my words) after I graduated and was still working at a restaurant. (Hey, I turned down the IRS position!)

One of the classes she taught was an international economics course. I think half of the Russian embassy was in the class. They really were struggling with the concepts.

What makes me very proud to be a Mason graduate is to see the torch continuing. I see their work everywhere. It is so important that a department like Mason's continues to influence other schools.

[Peter Boettke]

Steve,

GMU was a pretty special time for us (me 84-88, you 85-89). And Karen was as chair very important for creating that environment. Buchanan's Nobel, Boulding, Tullock, Tollison's amazing productivity and whirlwind mind, Vanberg, and DiLorwnzo. And of course, Lavoie, High, Selgin, and Boudreaux at CSMP. I also think the contributions of Dwight Lee, Geoff Brennan, Bill Shughart, Charles Rowley, and the visits by Jack Wiseman, Sudda Shenoy, D. McClosky, Arjo Klamer, and especially Ludwig Lachmann must be mentioned. And finally, both Mike Alexeev and Kevin Grier were very important as junior faculty who taught technical economics to students who often didn't want to learn thar material as they should have.

I am pretty convinced that GMU is a very special place then and now for economic research and graduate education. I consider myself very fortunate to be living the dream for an Austrian/Virgina Political Economy scholar/teacher. I really do hope 25 years from now a future Steve Horwitz will look back on their decision in 2010 to head to GMU with the same fondness.