Guide to the Paul Alexander Baran Papers SC1234

Daniel Hartwig & Jenny Johnson
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
January 2015
Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford 94305-6064
specialcollections@stanford.edu


Language of Material: English
Contributing Institution: Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Paul Alexander Baran papers
creator: Baran, Paul A.
Identifier/Call Number: SC1234
Physical Description: 9 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1928-1964
Physical Location: Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36-48 hours in advance. For more information on paging collections, see the department's website: http://library.stanford.edu/spc .
Abstract: Correspondence, writings and audio recordings of Paul A. Baran.

Access to Collection

The materials are open for research use.

Publication Rights

All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, California 94305-6064. Consent is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright owner. Such permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/spc/using-collections/permission-publish.
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and educational purposes.

Preferred Citation

[identification of item], Paul Alexander Baran Papers (SC1234). Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Biographical / Historical

Paul Alexander Baran was a professor of economics at Stanford from 1949 until his death of a heart attack in 1964. His most important works were The Political Economy of Growth (1957), and Monopoly Capital (1965), co-authored with Paul M. Sweezy. Paul Baran was an expert in comparative economic systems (capitalism and socialism), and considered himself a Marxist.
Born in Nikolaev, Russia, in 1909, Baran received his education in Germany, obtaining a Ph. D. in economics from the University of Berlin in 1931. Having to leave Germany with the rise of Hitler, Baran spent a brief time in the Soviet Union, and then some years in France, Poland, and Britain, working for his family's timber business. He then emigrated to the United States in 1938, and served in the U.S. Army during the second world war as an expert on Russian and German economics. After the war, Baran worked as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank, and after being invited to Stanford as a visiting lecturer in the summer of 1948, was hired as an associate professor, and granted tenure in 1951. Baran became quite a controversial figure at Stanford after expressing his support for the Cuban Revolution in 1959. He remained one of the economics department's most popular professors until his death in 1964.

Biographical / Historical

Chronology

1909-08-25 Paul Alexander Baran (PAB) is born in Nikolaev, Ukraine. On all official documents, PAB's birthday is the above date, but he maintained that this was an error, and that his real birthday was December 8, 1910, which is the date he and his family celebrated.
1926 Baran graduates from German Gymnasium in Dresden, to where he had moved with his parents in 1921, and returns to USSR, where he enrolls in the Plekhanov (Karl Marx) Institute of Economics at the University of Moscow.
1928-1932 Baran returns to Germany, completes his graduate studies in Berlin, Breslau, and Frankfurt's Institute for Social Research, writes for Rudolf Hilferding's "Die Gesellschaft" under the pen name "Alexander Gabriel." Earns Diplom Volkswirt (Master's Degree in Political Economy) and Dr. Phil. from Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin.
1934-1935 Baran returns to USSR to visit his parents, but after several months, leaves for Vilna, Poland, where he has relatives, due to political situation in USSR.
1935-1938 Baran works for his uncles' timber business in Vilna, and eventually moves to London as the company's representative.
1939 Baran moves to the U.S., with the intention of pursuing an academic career in economics, as Germany occupies Poland. Meets Paul Sweezy in Cambridge. Enrolls at Harvard as graduate student in economics.
1941 Baran receives an M.A. in economics from Harvard. He had obtained a Ph.D. (Dr. Phil.) at the University of Berlin, but felt he needed to update and augment both his education and his credentials with a degree from Harvard.
1941-1942 Baran accepts research fellowship working on problems of price controls at the Brookings Institution.
1942-1945 After working briefly at the Office of Price Administration, Baran joins the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), working under E.S. Mason, and is drafted into the Army and reassigned to the OSS. His final rank was Technical Sergeant.
1945 PAB works for the United States Strategic Bombing Survey (USSBS) under direction of J.K. Galbraith. (For an entertaining account of PAB's stint with the USSBS while on assignment in Germany, see J.K. Galbraith's memoir, A Life in Our Times, 1981.)
1946-1949 Baran works briefly at Department of Commerce and then about 3 years at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York. First saved letters of correspondence between PMS and PAB are from 1949 when he lived in New York.
1949 After having taught a seminar during summer quarter at Stanford as a visiting scholar in 1948, Stanford hires Baran as an associate professor
1951 Stanford promotes Baran to full professor with tenure.
1952 "National Economic Planning" published (see bibliography)
1953 Baran spends fall semester at Oxford University, where he delivered a series of lectures forming the basis of his book, Political Economy of Growth.
1955 Baran is visiting scholar at the Indian Institute of Statistics in Calcutta.
1957 Political Economy of Growth is published.
1960 Baran travels to Cuba with Paul M. Sweezy and Leo Huberman. Suffers heart attack in December, 1960.
1962 Baran makes major trip to Europe, the Soviet Union and Iran.
1963 Baran travels to Latin America, with lectures in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil
1964-03-27 Baran dies of massive heart attack while visiting his friend Leo Lowenthal for dinner in San Francisco.
1964-04 Monopoly Capital is published.

Scope and Contents

The materials consist of correspondence, writings and audio recordings of Paul A. Baran.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Economics -- Study and teaching.
Economics -- United States -- Studying and Teaching.
Philosophy, Marxist.
Economics
Marxism
Sweezy, Paul M. (Paul Marlor)
Baran, Paul A.
Thompson, Elsa Knight
Landau, Saul
Marcuse, Herbert
Brody, Richard A.

 

Audio recordings 1958-1963

Audio recordings: 1958-1963

box 1, folder 22

What sort of revolution? 1960-11-25

Physical Description: 2 optical disc(s) (cd)
box 1, folder 23

On the Cuban invasion 1960-04-20

Physical Description: 1 optical disc(s) (cd)
box 1, folder 24

U.S. policy towards China 1958-10-18

Physical Description: 1 optical disc(s) (cd)

Subjects and Indexing Terms

McWilliams, Chan
Parsons, Clandes Mok
Baran, Paul A.
box 1, folder 25

Paul A. Baran in Los Angeles 1961-03-09

Physical Description: 1 optical disc(s) (cd)
box 1, folder 26

The work of Paul Baran undated

Physical Description: 1 optical disc(s) (cd)

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Marcuse, Herbert
Abramovitz, Moses
box 1, folder 27

In the last analysis; Talk on affairs in Cuba after the Bay of Pigs invasion 1961-05-04

Physical Description: 1 optical disc(s) (cd)
box 1, folder 28

In the last analysis; Analysis of American foreign policy under John Foster Dulles 1963-05-24

Physical Description: 1 optical disc(s) (cd)
box 1, folder 29

Panel discussion on Cuba 1962-10-24

Physical Description: 1 optical disc(s) (cd)

Scope and Contents

Panel discussion on the political and economic developments in Cuba following the revolution. They also discuss the implications fo the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Landau, Saul
Thompson, Elsa Knight
Baran, Paul A.
Brody, Richard A.
 

Biographical

Biographical

 

Correspondence 1949-1964

box 1, folder 21

Huberman, Leo 1952-1964

Huberman, Leo: 1952-1964

box 1, folder 1-20

Sweezy, Paul M. (Paul Marlor), 1910-2004. 1949-1964

Sweezy, Paul M.: 1949-1964

 

Various

Various

 

Photographs

Photographs

Physical Description: 3 computer file(s)
 

Writing circa 1930-1964

Writing: circa 1951-1964

 

German writing translations 1930-1933

Translations

 

Additional Papers Accession ARCH_2017_292

Box 1, Folder 1

General Correspondence 1950-1964

Box 1, Folder 2

Ccorrespondence with publishers 1950-1964

Box 1, Folder 3

Correspondence with Maurice Dobb 1953-1959

Box 1, Folder 4

Notes on "Festschrift" (Commemorative volume) for Maurice Dobb 1964

Box 1, Folder 5

PAB's critique of Abe Bergson 1950-1951

Box 1, Folder 6

Correspondence with copy editor Jack Rackliffe, mainly re: Political Economy of Growth (PEoG) 1956

Box 1, Folder 7

Correspondence with Herbert Marcuse 1948-1963

Box 1, Folder 8

Correspondence with Andre Gunder Frank 1963

Box 1, Folder 9

Correspondence with Oscar Lange 1951-1952

Box 1, Folder 10

Correspondence with The Nation 1951-1953

Box 1, Folder 11

Oxford trip 1953

Box 1, Folder 12

Notes and articles 1942-1964

Box 1, Folder 13

Correspondnence with RAND Corporation 1950

Box 1, Folder 14

Correspondence with Model, Roland, Stone 1950-1954

Box 1, Folder 15

Notes from Federal Reserve Bank 1947-1948

Box 1, Folder 16

Transcript of MR Associates lecture by PAB re: Soviet Party Congress 1961

Box 1, Folder 17

Book review of "A Charter for World Trade," by Claire Wilcox, NYTimes 1949

Box 1, Folder 18

Book review of "Saving U.S. Capitalism," by Seymour Harris, NYTimes 1949

Box 1, Folder 19

Book review of "Spirit of Postwar Russia," by R. Schlesinger, Pol. Sci. Qrtrly. 1949

Box 1, Folder 20

Copies of book reviews in s 17 and 18

Box 1, Folder 21

Draft of article either by Paul Sweezy or PAB

Box 1, Folder 22

Clippings and correspondence re: PAB's situation at Stanford 1957-1961

Box 1, Folder 23

Dobbs, Sweezy, and J. Rackliffe comments on PEoG circa 1956

Box 1, Folder 24

Paul Sweezy and Joan Robinson on PEoG

Box 1, Folder 25

Reviews of PEoG

Box 1, Folder 26

Clippings (for research)

Box 1, Folder 27

Miscellaneous clippings

Box 1, Folder 28

Business Week article on PAB, PMS, Huberman: "Viewing U.S. Economy with a Marxist Glass" 1963 Apr 13

Box 1, Folder 29

Lecture notes on history of economic thought 1960

Box 1, Folder 30

Notes for Econ 120 1958-1964

Box 1, Folder 31

Back Examinations 1951-1952

Box 1, Folder 32

Unpublished interview with PAB October 1961

Box 1, Folder 33

Notes and Lecture Transcript on Marxism and Psychoanalysis 1959

Box 1, Folder 34

Transcript of Stanford Lecture 1951

Box 1, Folder 35

Undated article on Nazi Economy, written in German, probably circa 1940

Box 1, Folder 36

Articles published in German circa 1932

Box 1, Folder 37

Unpublished German manuscripts prior to 1933, German Radio broadcast transcripts

Box 1, Folder 38

Unknown letter to PAB re: manuscript entitled "Dennoch Marxismus," Polish writings

Box 1, Folder 39

Bibliography and proposed collection

Box 1, Folder 40

Biographical material circa 1951

Box 1, Folder 41

Intellectual and personal development, personal statement, biographical material circa 1951

Box 1, Folder 42

Guggenheim application 1955

Box 1, Folder 43

Personal statement, USSBS certificate 1946

Box 1, Folder 44

USSBS German occupation reports, interviews with German personnel 1945

Box 1, Folder 45

PAB Will, disposition of his library 1964

Box 1, Folder 46

Manuscript re Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)

Box 1, Folder 47

Unpublished manuscript circa 1948

Box 2, Folder 1

Economic Progress and the Economic Surplus, manuscript plus commentary and letters 1953

Box 2, Folder 2

Review by PAB and E.J. Hobsbawm of Rostow's "Stages of Economic Growth," manuscript and notes 1960

Box 2, Folder 3

Miscellaneous correspondence incl. letter to Prime Minister Nehru 1956

Box 2, Folder 4

Miscellaneous writings (drafts for his proposed journal "American Economist.") circa 1948-1950

Box 2, Folder 5

Miscellaneous writings/correspondence, incl. transcript of panel discussion re Cuba on KPFA 1962 1948-1963

Box 2, Folder 6

Academic credential documents 1926-1941

Box 2, Folder 7

Civil Service, OSS, OPA Documents, UNRRA Appointment to Poland (PAB could not take job, no passport) 1942-1948

Box 2, Folder 8

Office of Price Administration Paper, alleged to have been plagiarized by Otto Nathan 1942

Box 2, Folder 9

Planning for Full Employment (with Lloyd Metzler); Remarks on USSR Economy 1944-1948

Box 2, Folder 10

John Henderson's material on distribution of labor force 1958

Box 2, Folder 11

Outline for book on socialism 1950

Box 2, Folder 12

First draft of "National Economic Planning." circa 1950-1951

Box 2, Folder 13

Materials and Correspondence re: "National Economic Planning." 1950-1951

Box 2, Folder 14

Polish Volumes (Kalecki-Lange Festschrift): "Notes on Imperialism," "Economics of Two World" 1960

Box 2, Folder 15

Article Notes, reprint of article, "New Trends in Russian Economic Thinking." 1944-1953

Box 2, Folder 16

Manuscript for "Foreign Investment: Trap or Opportunity," 1955

Box 2, Folder 17

Manuscript for "The American Dilemma," 1954

Box 2, Folder 18

Notes on "Eighth Lecture" on Planned Economy, interview re: Cuba, Miscellaneous notes circa 1963-1960

Box 2, Folder 19

Proposal for "American Economist," 1946

Box 2, Folder 20

Tributes to PAB 1964

Box 3

Files Pertaining to Passport Application (letters, affidavits, personal statement)

Box 4

The Scientific-Industrial Revolution (pamphlet supplied by PAB under contract to investment bank Model-Roland-Stone, written by Paul Sweezy).

Box 4

Latin American Trip (travel documents, clippings) 1963

Box 4

Stanford clippings/letters circa 1961-1963

Box 4

Trip Receipts 1953

Box 4

India (appointment at Indian Institute of Statistics, Calcutta): Letter to Nehru, other documents 1956

Box 4

Misc. Manuscripts submitted to PAB and Sweezy

Box 4

Drafts for Monopoly Capital:

Box 4

QoS (2) ms and carbon

Box 4

Ch. 12 with Jack Rackliffe Notes

Box 4

Ch. 8

Box 4

Ch. 11

Box 4

Model, Roland Stone issues (PAB's monthly submissions to Model, Roland and Stone circa 1950s

Box 5

Lecture poster 1928