1941:
Worked for one summer with Dorothea Lange,
photographer; her husband, in Economics Department at the
University of California, convinced North to study
economics
1942:
Received B.A. from University of California,
Berkeley
1942 -
1946:
Served in the U.S. Merchant Marines
1950 -
1979:
Professor at University of
Washington
1952:
Received Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley
1956 -
1957:
Research Associate at the National Bureau
of Economic Research; his major quantitative study of the
balance of payments of the United States from 1790 to 1860
led to publication of first book in 1961
1960 -
1966:
Co-editor of the
Journal of Economic
History
1961:
Publication of book,
The Economic Growth of
the United States, 1790 to 1860
1961 -
1961 present:
Director, Institute of Economic Research
at Washington University
1966:
Publication of book,
Growth and Welfare in
the American Past: A New Economic History
1966 -
1967:
Became interested in European economic
history and spent the year in Geneva as a Ford Faculty
Fellow
1971:
Publication of book,
Institutional Change and
American Economic Growth (with L. E. Davis)
1972:
Elected President of the Economic History
Association
1973:
Publication of The Rise of the
Western World: A New Economic History (with R. P.
Thomas)Visiting Director of the Centre de
Recherche Historique at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes
Etudes, Paris
1979:
Professor, Rice University
1981:
Publication of book,
Structure and Change in
Economic History
1981 -
1982:
Professor, University of Cambridge,
England
1983:
Moved to Washington University in St.
Louis, where he created the Center in Political
Economy
1990:
Publication of book,
Institutions,
Institutional Change, and Economic
Performance
1993:
Awarded Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics
(jointly with Robert W. Fogel)
1996:
Elected as Fellow of the British
Academy
1997:
Advisor, World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World, the World Bank
2003:
Awarded Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humanities, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri
From the guide to the Douglass Cecil North Papers, 1942-2006 and undated, (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)
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