Hamilton, Earl J. (Earl Jefferson), 1899-

History professor at Duke University, Northwestern, and the University of Chicago.

Earl Jefferson Hamilton was born on May 17, 1899 in Houlka, Mississippi. He received a B.S. with honors from Mississippi State University (1920), an M.A. from the University Texas (1924), and a Ph.D. from Harvard (1929). In 1952, he received a Docteur Honoris Causa from the University of Paris and again from the University of Madrid.

Hamilton also held a Thayer Fellowship and a Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship (Harvard University), a Social Science Research Fellowship, a Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, and a Faculty Research Fellowship from the Ford Foundation.

Hamilton was an Assistant Professor of Economics at Duke University (1927-1929), a Professor of Economics at Duke University (1929-1944), Professor of Economics at Northwestern University (1944-1947), and a Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago (1947-1967).

Hamilton was the editor of the Journal of Political Economy from 1948 to 1954 and president of the Economic History Association from 1951 to 1952. His books include American Treasure and the Price Revolution in Spain, 1501-1650 (1934), Money, Prices, and Wages in Valencia, Aragon and Navarre, 1351-1500 (1936), War and Prices in Spain, 1651-1800 (1947), and Landmarks in Political Economy (1962). Late in his career Hamilton developed an interest in the work of John Law of Lauriston.

Hamilton married Gladys Dallas. The couple had one child.

Hamilton was a member of Illinois Gladiolus Society, and spent a great amount of his free time gardening and exhibiting gladiolus.

Earl Jefferson Hamilton died in 1989.