Author Description

"Fogel and his colleague Stanley Engerman were among those who led in applying cliometrics to the study of slavery in the United States. Their 1974 ground-breaking book, Time on the Cross, revealed slavery to be a profitable and efficient labor system, demonstrating that economic growth and technological progress were possible even in a deeply immoral order. Slavery ended not because of any inherent economic weakness but due to antislavery political tactics and ultimately war, and that antislavery struggle, Fogel argues, transformed American civilization. Initial accolades from the scholarly community soon turned to condemnation and eventually accusations that Fogel and Engerman were racists themselves. Even after thirty years, and a Nobel Prize in economics for Fogel, Time on the Cross remains one of the most fiercely debated works of U.S. history in the twentieth century.".