22 Jul 2009

Harvard Business School Historian Thomas McCraw Wins Lifetime Achievement Award

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Professor Thomas McCraw

BOSTON — Thomas K. McCraw, the Isidor Straus Professor of Business History Emeritus at Harvard Business School, is the 2009 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Business History Conference (BHC), an international organization devoted to encouraging all aspects of research, writing, and teaching in the field of business history.

A member of the active HBS faculty from 1976 to 2006 and a much honored author and teacher, McCraw was cited by the BHC as "one of the most distinguished business historians of his generation." His large body of work, from case studies and papers to journal articles and books, was praised for its contribution to making "business history more accessible and more influential in the wider fields of history and management."

McCraw's most recent work, Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction (Harvard University Press, 2007) won, among other awards, the Hagley Prize for best book in business history and the Joseph Spengler Prize for best book on the history of economics. His 1984 book, Prophets of Regulation: Charles Francis Adams, Louis D. Brandeis, James M. Landis, Alfred E. Kahn, won both the Pulitzer Prize for history and the Thomas Newcomen Award, given for the best book on the history of business published over a three-year period.

At 68, McCraw is the youngest winner of the BHC's Lifetime Achievement Award, which was established in 2002 and is given biennially. The first recipient was the late Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., the renowned Harvard Business School historian who was McCraw's mentor for many years and preceded him in the Straus Professorship.

About Harvard Business School

Harvard Business School, located on a 40-acre campus in Boston, was founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University. It is among the world's most trusted sources of management education and thought leadership. For more than a century, the School's faculty has combined a passion for teaching with rigorous research conducted alongside practitioners at world-leading organizations to educate leaders who make a difference in the world. Through a dynamic ecosystem of research, learning, and entrepreneurship that includes MBA, Doctoral, Executive Education, and Online programs, as well as numerous initiatives, centers, institutes, and labs, Harvard Business School fosters bold new ideas and collaborative learning networks that shape the future of business.