Offer, Avner

PERSONAL:

Born in Israel. Education: Hebrew University, B.A.; St. Antony's College, Oxford, D.Phil.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Faculty of History, Oxford University, George St., Oxford OX1 2RL, England; All Souls College, Oxford OX1 4AL, England; fax: 01865 279299. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, economist, historian, lecturer, and educator. Oxford University, Merton College, Oxford, England, junior research fellow, 1976-78; University of York, York, England, lecturer in economic and social history, 1979-1990, reader in economic and social history, 1990-91; Rutgers University, Center for Historical Analysis, New Brunswick, NJ, senior fellow, 1991; Oxford University, Nuffield College, Oxford, professorial fellow and reader in recent social and economic history, 1992-2000, All Souls College, fellow, Chichele Professor of Economic History, 2000—. University of Southampton, Hartley research fellow, 1981-82; Clare Hall, Cambridge, visiting associate, 1984; Institute of Advanced Studies, Australian National University, research fellow, 1985-88; Remarque Institute, New York University, senior visiting fellow, 1999. Presenter at conferences and meetings. Has worked as a farmer and conservation worker. Military service: Served in the Israeli military.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Trevor Reese Memorial Prize for Imperial and Commonwealth History, 2002; British Academy, fellow, 2000; Academy of Social Sciences, fellow, 2003.

WRITINGS:

Property and Politics, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1981.

The Sod House vs. the Manor House: British and Overseas Farming, 1870-1914, Australian National University (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia), 1986.

The First World War: An Agrarian Interpretation, Clarendon Press (New York, NY), 1989.

Between the Gift and the Market: The Economy of Regard, University of Oxford (Oxford, England), 1996.

The American Automobile Frenzy of the 1950s, University of Oxford (Oxford, England), 1996.

(Editor) In Pursuit of the Quality of Life, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Epidemics of Abundance: Overeating and Slimming in the USA and Britain since the 1950s, Nuffield College, Oxford (Oxford, England), 1998.

Economic Welfare Measurements and Human Well-being, University of Oxford (Oxford, England), 2000.

Why Has the Public Sector Grown So Large in Market Societies? The Political Economy of Prudence in the UK, c. 1870-2000, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to books, including The Rise of Colonial Nationalism, 1880-1914, edited by D. Schreuder and J. Eddy, Allen & Unwin (Sydney, ew South Wales, Australia), 1988; Rationality and Economics, edited by W. Gerrard and J. Hodge, Routledge (London, England), 1993; Land and Society in Britain, 1700-1914, edited by Negley Harte and R. Quinalt, Manchester University Press (Manchester, England), 1996; The Sex of Things: Gender and Consumption in Historical Perspective, edited by V. De Grazia and E. Furlough, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1996; Oxford History of the British Empire, Volume 3: The Nineteenth Century, edited by Andrew Porter Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 1999; Living Economic and Social History, edited by Pat Hudson, Economic History Society (Glasgow, Scotland), 2001; and The Economic Future in Historical Perspective, edited by Paul A. David and Mark Thomas, Oxford University Press (Oxford, England), 2003.

Contributor to periodicals and professional journals, including Modern Law Review, Public Historian, Economic History Review, Past and Present, Historical Journal, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Zmanim, Social History of Medicine, and Journal of Contemporary History. Served as editor, with F.M.L. Thompson, of a series of historical handbooks published by Faber & Faber. Rural History, member of editorial board, 1989-94; Journal of Marketing History, member of editorial board.

SIDELIGHTS:

Avner Offer is an author, historian, economist, and educator who has had a more than three-decade-long career in academia. A prolific writer, he is the Chichele Professor of Economic History at the University of Oxford in England. His research and teaching interests cover a wide range of historical and economic subjects, noted a biographer on the University of Oxford Faculty of History Web site. Among those interests are international political economy from 1850 to 1920; the social and economic context of war; urban and rural economy; consumption, affluence, and the quality of life in the United States and Great Britain since the 1920s; and the international effects of the transition from social democracy to market liberalism. "In all of these fields, I have a secondary interest in law," Offer remarked on his home page.

In The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950, Offer explores in depth the conditions in the U.S. and England that are the result of increasing personal prosperity and wealth since the middle of the twentieth century. The book's "central thesis is that rising living standards in Britain and America have engendered impatience, which undermines well-being. The fruits of affluence are bitter ones, and include addiction, obesity, family breakdown and mental disorders," noted a reviewer in the Economist. Offer considers the numerical and statistical evidence behind the effects of increased economic growth and the overall effect it has had on the individual quality of life. "Avner Offer's statistical analysis of quality is thoroughly well-researched and refers to pretty well every serious piece of work that has been done, from the United Nations in 1954 onwards. His own intellectual apparatus combines careful and not very critical reporting with a refreshingly sardonic attitude to a lot of received wisdom," commented Albert Hobson in the Contemporary Review.

The increase of affluence and the resultant impatience have manifested themselves in a lack of self-control among the population, Offer asserts. Affluence offers abundant choice, and in his view, people find it difficult if not impossible to respond rationally and intelligently to this bewildering array of options. People begin to seek novelty and quick gratification in ever-increasing type and quantity. Advertisers and businesses "push hedonism and encourage novelty-seeking because it sells products but these prove unrewarding and so we remain miserable in affluence," commented Christie Davis in a Social Affairs Unit review. Personal troubles and social ills result. The lure of cheap, flavorful food results in obesity and unhealthful eating. In the interpersonal realm, "people are single for longer, and divorce more often; abortion and single parenthood have multiplied; sexual behavior has broken free of all social restraint," noted Martin Vander Weyer in a Spectator review. Offer presents a number of case studies illustrating his points.

Some critics found Offer's critique of affluence to be unconvincing. The Economist reviewer concluded: "The book fails to convince, however, both in its challenge to mainstream economics and in its interpretation of the historical evidence. Choices may multiply with the growth of affluence, but there is nothing new in the tension between impatience and prudence." Other sections of the book, for example, provide "long sections on the way household appliances used to deliver time (by saving it) and now consume it (by entertaining us). Quite why occupying an hour is anything like stealing it, I don't know," commented Robert D. North in a Social Affairs Unit critique. In the end, the Economist reviewer remarked: "Affluence may present new challenges but they are a lot better than the alternative."

Hobson concluded that The Challenge of Affluence is a "useful, serious, and thorough book," while Weyer named it an "uncompromising work of scholarship."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Agricultural History, spring, 1991, Kenneth D. Barkin, review of The First World War: An Agrarian Interpretation, p. 178.

American Historical Review, October, 1982, review of Property and Politics, 1870-1914, p. 1093; December, 1991, David Kaiser, review of The First World War, p. 1524.

Business History, January, 2007, Shinobu Majima, review of The Challenge of Affluence: Self-Control and Well-Being in the United States and Britain since 1950, p. 133.

Business History Review, summer, 2007, Charles Kenny, review of The Challenge of Affluence, p. 343.

Canadian Journal of History, April, 1992, B.J.C. McKercher, review of The First World War, p. 175.

Contemporary Review, spring, 2007, Albert Hobson, "The Dilemma of Anglo-American Affluence," review of The Challenge of Affluence, p. 104.

Economic History Review, November, 1990, P.E. Dewey, review of The First World War, p. 764; September, 2006, Barry Supple, review of The Challenge of Affluence, pp. 1156-1159; January, 2007, M.J. Daunton, review of The Challenge of Affluence, pp. 210-211.

Economist, April 29, 2006, "The Perils of Prosperity; Growth and Its Consequences," review of The Challenge of Affluence, p. 86.

English Historical Review, April, 1991, J.P.D. Dunbabin, review of The First World War, p. 418; November, 2004, Barry Supple, review of Why Has the Public Sector Grown So Large in Market Societies? The Political Economy of Prudence in the UK, c. 1870-2000, p. 1472; September, 2006, Barry Supple, review of The Challenge of Affluence, p. 1156.

Environmental Politics, summer, 1998, James Connelly, review of In Pursuit of the Quality of Life, p. 202.

Historical Journal, March, 1991, Hew Strachan, review of The First World War, p. 219.

History: The Journal of the Historical Association, June, 1991, Michael Dockrill, review of The First World War, p. 351.

International History Review, May, 1991, review of First World War, p. 395.

International Journal of Social Economics, April, 1999, Leslie Armour, review of In Pursuit of the Quality of Life, p. 572.

Journal of Economic History, December, 1990, R.M. McInnis, review of The First World War, p. 959; September, 1998, N.F.R. Crafts, review of In Pursuit of the Quality of Life, p. 924; Volume 67, number 4, 2007, Joy Parr, review of The Challenge of Affluence, pp. 1085-1086.

Journal of Economic Literature, December, 1992, review of The First World War, p. 2263.

Journal of Historical Geography, July, 1990, Sidney Pollard, review of The First World War, p. 349.

Journal of Military History, January, 1991, Samuel R. Williamson, review of The First World War, p. 115.

Journal of Pacific History, June, 1991, Donald Denoon, review of The First World War, p. 125.

Journal of Public Policy, January-April, 1997, Steffan Mau, review of In Pursuit of the Quality of Life, p. 137.

Journal of Social History, winter, 1991, John Komlos, review of The First World War, p. 287.

Journal of Social Policy, April, 1998, Michael Cahill, review of In Pursuit of the Quality of Life, p. 287.

Journal of the History of Ideas, April, 1990, review of The First World War, p. 348.

Law Quarterly Review, October, 1993, Joshua Getzler, review of Property and Politics, 1870-1914, p. 684.

London Review of Books, March 8, 2007, Barry Schwartz, "Stop the Treadmill!," review of The Challenge of Affluence, p. 32.

Political Quarterly, April 1, 1990, Kathleen Burk, review of The First World War, p. 229.

Social History, January, 1991, John Turner, review of The First World War, p. 113.

Social Policy & Administration, Volume 41, issue 7, December, 2007, Tim Jackson, review of The Challenge of Affluence, pp. 787-789.

Spectator, April 1, 2006, "Trying Times on Easy Street," review of The Challenge of Affluence, p. 53.

Times Higher Education Supplement, May 12, 2006, Howard Davies, "There's Less Pleasure in the Easy Life," review of The Challenge of Affluence, p. 22.

Times Literary Supplement, May 18, 1990, David French, review of The First World War, p. 536; February 28, 1997, Digby Anderson, review of In Pursuit of the Quality of Life, p. 27.

ONLINE

Avner Offer Home Page,http://avoffer.googlepages.com/avneroffer (February 4, 2008).

Social Affairs Unit,http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/ (April 21, 2006), Robert D. North, review of The Challenge of Affluence; (January 17, 2007), Christie Davis, review of The Challenge of Affluence.

University of Oxford Faculty of History Web site,http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/ (February 4, 2008), curriculum vitae of Avner Offer.