Leonid Hurwicz: Intelligent Designer

How War and the Great Depression Inspired a Nobel Economist

In 1938, young Leonid Hurwicz leaves Warsaw seeking safety and an economics degree. These challenging years spawn a lifelong intellectual adventure, a stellar career in economics and a Nobel Prize. This book tells his story.

“A fascinating, exciting story.” 
— Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind

While still in his early 20s, and under Hitler's shadow, Leonid “Leo” Hurwicz (1917-2008) left his home in Warsaw, Poland, seeking safety and a degree at the London School of Economics.  The following years, while challenging and potentially life-threatening, contained the seeds of a lifelong intellectual adventure.  Leo's story is personal (born a refugee, precarious war years for himself and his Polish-Jewish family, a new life in America), global (revolutions, wars, depressions), ideological  (socialism, capitalism, economic planning, free markets) and professional (a sixty-year career as a professor of economics leading ultimately to a Nobel Prize).  This book tells his story.