DR. SPIEGEL,HENRY,WILLIAM (1911-1995) - EMIGRE ECONOMIST, HISTORIAN OF ECONOMICS, CREATIVE SCHOLAR, AND COMPANION

Spiegel's professional life and contributions were outstanding and wor th remembering. Spiegel's emigration from Europe to the United States was typical of many other emigre economists who were threatened by the turmoil in Europe during the 1930s. Spiegel was trained as a lawyer b ut not allowed to practice his trade simply because he was Jewish. But on arrival in the United States, he refocused his abilities from the legal field to the academy as an academic economist with a specialty i n the fledgling field of development economics. Spiegel's originality as an historian of economics is revealed by his economists-on-other-ec onomists projects that established a new genre of literature in econom ics. Spiegel's The Growth of Economic Thought is a masterful treatise on the history of economics, it is his greatest legacy and is still us ed in college teaching. This book is in print and supplies a descripti ve rather than analytic approach to the story of how economics develop ed. In its breadth of coverage and links to sociology, philosophy, and even law, it is one of the best balanced treatments available. The cu rrent plans of economists in the People's Republic of China to transla te the work into Chinese are noteworthy. As might be expected, Spiegel loved to collect books, and in his personal life with Cecile set asid e time for warm companionship and a cultured life style.