Sheahan, John 1923- (John B. Sheahan)

PERSONAL:

Born September 11, 1923, in Toledo, OH; son of Bernard William (an engineer) and Florence Sheahan; married Denise Eugenie Morlino (a teacher and social worker); children: Yvette Marie, Bernard Eugene. Ethnicity: "Irish." Education: Stanford University, B.A., 1948; Harvard University, Ph.D., 1954. Politics: Democrat.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Williamstown, MA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

U.S. Economic Cooperation Administration, Washington, DC, economic analyst in Paris, France, 1951-54; Williams College, Williamstown, MA, faculty member, beginning 1954, professor of economics, 1966-94, professor emeritus, 1994—. Brookings Institution, national research professor, 1959-60; El Colegio de México, visiting professor, 1970-71; Université de Grenoble, Fulbright research professor, 1974-75; University of California, San Diego, visiting research fellow at Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, 1991. Harvard University, economic advisor to Development Advisory Service, Bogotá, Colombia, 1963-65. Military service: U.S. Army, 1943-46; received Purple Heart.

MEMBER:

New England Council of Latin American Studies.

WRITINGS:

Promotion and Control of Industry in Postwar France, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1963.

The Wage-Price Guideposts, Brookings Institution (Washington, DC), 1967.

An Introduction to the French Economy, C.E. Merrill (Columbus, OH), 1969.

(Under name John B. Sheahan) Alternative International Economic Strategies and Their Relevance for China, World Bank (Washington, DC), 1986.

Patterns of Development in Latin America: Poverty, Repression, and Economic Strategy, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1987.

Conflict and Change in Mexican Economic Strategy: Implications for Mexico and for Latin America, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego (La Jolla, CA), 1991.

Searching for a Better Society: The Peruvian Economy from 1950, Pennsylvania State University Press (University Park, PA), 1999.

La economía peruana desde 1950: Buscando un a sociedad mejor, Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (Lima, Peru), 2001.

Contributor to books, including Models of Capitalism: Lessons for Latin America, edited by Evelyne Huber, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2002; The Fujimori Legacy, edited by Julio F. Carrion, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006; and State and Society in Conflict: Comparative Perspectives on Andean Crises, edited by Paul W. Drake and Eric Hershbert, University of Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), 2006. Contributor to professional journals in the United States, Colombia, Peru, and France.

SIDELIGHTS:

John Sheahan told CA: "My writing has been focused on exploring issues of economic policy, in the hope of clarifying the causes of relative success or failure in dealing with major problems. The meaning of ‘success’ has changed considerably for me over the course of the years. Originally it meant mainly the ability to increase production and national income; in later years it has meant more the abilities to reduce poverty and to avoid the kinds of relapse into repressive authoritarian government that have happened so often in Latin America.

"I have greatly enjoyed opportunities to work in different countries—especially France, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru, in addition to the United States. Their different traditions and values make the world more interesting and help bring out distinctive ways in which specific rational national contexts shape choices of goals and policies. The interactions between economic principles that are meant to be applicable everywhere, and the contrasting reality of unexpected opportunities and problems in differing national contexts, provide endless scope for intriguing complications."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1989, David W. Schodt, review of Patterns of Development in Latin America: Poverty, Repression, and Economic Strategy, p. 156.

Choice, November, 1999, F.S. Weaver, review of Searching for a Better Society: The Peruvian Economy from 1950, p. 590.

Economic Development and Cultural Change, October, 1989, Werner Baer, review of Patterns of Development in Latin America, p. 207.

Foreign Affairs, spring, 1988, Abraham F. Lowenthal, review of Patterns of Development in Latin America, p. 878.

Journal of Development Studies, January, 1990, David E. Hojman, review of Patterns of Development in Latin America, p. 367.

Journal of Economic Literature, March, 1989, Linda Kamas, review of Patterns of Development in Latin America, p. 100.