Featured Memoir
Richard A. Easterlin by Kelsey O’Connor
“Richard A. Easterlin had a profound influence on his students, the research community, and the general public. Both a paradox and a hypothesis bear his name—remarkably, from two different fields—and remain influential more than fifty years after their introduction. The Easterlin Paradox, in particular, has gained wide public attention, challenging the orthodox economic view that economic growth improves people’s perceived quality of life, that is, their happiness.”
About the Series
Published since 1877, Biographical Memoirs provide the life histories and selected bibliographies of deceased National Academy of Sciences members. Colleagues familiar with the subject’s work write these memoirs and as such, the series provides a biographical history of science in America.
The Online Collection includes approximately 1,900 memoirs, including those of famed naturalist Louis Agassiz; Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; Thomas Edison; Alexander Graham Bell; noted anthropologist Margaret Mead; and psychologist and philosopher John Dewey.
View the current list of Biographical Memoirs or search for specific memoirs: