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Walt Whitman RostowAmerican economist and political theorist
Date of Birth: 07.10.1916
Country:  USA |
Content:
Biography of Walt Whitman Rostow
Early Life and EducationWalt Whitman Rostow was born on October 7, 1916, in New York City, to Russian Jewish immigrants Victor and Lillian Rostow. His parents were active supporters of socialism and named their three sons after union leaders, philosophers, and poets who shared their socialist ideals. Rostow enrolled at Yale University at the age of 15 on a full scholarship and graduated at the age of 19. In 1940, he earned his doctoral degree from Yale and also studied at Balliol College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar.
Career and Contributions
During the crisis surrounding the abdication of Edward VIII in 1936, Rostow assisted journalist Alistair Cooke in covering the events for the NBC radio network. After completing his education, Rostow taught economics at Columbia University. During World War II, he served in the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the CIA, under the leadership of Major General William Joseph Donovan. Rostow participated in target selection for American bombing missions. Nicholas Katzenbach, the former US Attorney General under President Johnson, once joked that he finally understood the difference between himself and Walt Whitman Rostow: Katzenbach was the navigator who got shot down and spent two years in a prisoner-of-war camp, while Rostow was the guy who chose his targets.
After the war, Rostow became an assistant to the head of the German-Austrian Economic Division at the US Department of State in Washington, D.C. In 1946-1947, he returned to Oxford as a lecturer in American history. However, in 1947, he was appointed as an assistant to the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Europe, forcing him to leave academia. In this role, he was involved in the development of the Marshall Plan.
Rostow taught American history at Cambridge University in 1949 and was a professor of the history of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1950 to 1961. He was also a staff member at the Center for International Studies at MIT from 1951 to 1961. In 1958, he became a speechwriter for President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In 1960, Rostow joined John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign and later served as Deputy National Security Advisor. In late 1961, he was appointed as a counselor to the US Department of State and Chairman of the Policy Planning Council.
Later Life
After leaving his position as National Security Advisor in 1969, Rostow returned to teaching history and economics at the University of Texas at Austin. He remained there until his death on February 13, 2003, at the age of 86. Throughout his career, Rostow was a prolific author, advocating for the economics of free enterprise, particularly in developing countries. His book "The Stages of Economic Growth: A non-communist manifesto," published in 1960, was used as a textbook in several social science fields. Rostow's older brother, Eugene Rostow, was a legal scholar and government official who also held high-ranking positions in foreign policy agencies.
