Walter Galenson

Walter Galenson (1914 – December 30, 1999) was a professor of economics at Cornell University and a noted U.S. labor historian and economist.

Education and early career He received his bachelor's degree in 1934, his Master of Science in 1935 and his Ph.D. in 1940—all from Columbia University.

During World War II, Galenson was an economist United States Department of War. He was the principal economist for the department from 1942 to 1943. He then became principal economist at the Office of Strategic Services (the forerunner to the CIA) from 1943 to 1944. After the war, Galenson was a labor attaché at the American embassies in Norway and Denmark from 1945 to 1946.

Academic career Galenson received an appointment as an assistant professor of economics at Harvard University in 1946. He left Harvard in 1951 to teach economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where, from 1957 to 1961, he was chair of the Center for Chinese Studies. He left Berkeley in 1965, one of many prominent academics who left after being accused of being too conservative, and took a position as a visiting professor of economics at Cornell University. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he directed a large research project, financed by the Ford Foundation, on the economic development of the Chinese economy—one of the first studies of the modernization of the Chinese economy and its effect on surrounding nations.

His 1981 study of the U.S. policy toward the International Labour Organization remains the most valuable work on that topic.

Awards and memberships In 1950, Galenson was named a Fulbright fellow. In 1954, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in economics. Galenson was a member of the American Philological Association. He was also a member of the Association for Comparative Economic Studies, and served as that organization's president in 1973.

Published works

Solely authored books The American Labor Movement, 1955–1995. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1996. The CIO Challenge to the AFL: A History of the American Labor Movement. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1960. The Danish System of Labor Relations: A Study in Industrial Peace. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1952. The International Labor Organization: An American View. 1st ed. Madison, Wisc.: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981. Labor in Norway. New York City: Russell & Russell, 1949. Labor Productivity in Soviet and American Industry. Columbia University Press, 1955. The Quality of Labour and Economic Development in Certain Countries: A Preliminary Study. Geneva, Switzerland: International Labour Office, 1964. Trade Union Democracy in Western Europe. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1961. Trade Union Growth and Decline: An International Study. 1st ed. Westport, Conn.: Praeger Publishers, 1994. The United Brotherhood of Carpenters: The First Hundred Years. 1st ed. Cambridge, Massachusetts" Harvard University Press, 1983. The World's Strongest Trade Unions: The Scandinavian Labor Movement. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Co-authored books Adams, John Clarke and Galenson, Walter. Comparative Labor Movements. New York City: Prentice Hall, 1952. Galenson, Walter and Lipset, Seymour Martin. Labor and Trade Unionism: An Interdisciplinary Reader. New York City: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1960.

Solely edited books Comparative Labor Movements. Galenson, Walter, ed. 2nd ed. New York City: Russell & Russell Publishers, 1968. Foreign Trade and Investment. Economic Development in the Newly Industrializing Countries. Galenson, Walter, ed. University of Wisconsin Press.

Co-edited books Dunlop, John T. and Galenson, Walter, eds. Labor in the Twentieth Century. New York: Academic Press, 1978.