Research

Professor Van Horn’s research interests now include: 1) the history of Chicago law and economics; 2) the history of neoliberalism; 3) the role that business has played in the development of economics; 4) the life and work of Aaron Director—a revered Chicago economist who is considered the father of Chicago law and economics; 5) Milton Friedman’s capitalism and economic freedom; and 6) best practices in teaching economics.

His work on the birth of Chicago neoliberalism and the rise of the Chicago School of economics and on the roots of Chicago law and economics compose two chapters in Road from Mont Pelerin (2009 and 2015).  These two refereed book chapters are his most famous work.  This work was originally part of a conference at New York University and a conference at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris.  Each has been recognized and praised by top scholars in the world and together have over 700 [513 + 222] citations on Google Scholar.  Here is an example of one of them: In their book, The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market (2023), Naomi Oreskes (Harvard University) and Eric Conway (California Institute of Technology) write: “Historians Robert van Horn and Philip Mirowski believe it was Hayek who had the grand vision, and Luhnow was a somewhat reluctant sponsor.  They wrote ‘In August 1945 Hayek conceived of the American Road project at Chicago as a subordinate part of a larger and more comprehensive scheme—a political movement to counter the intellectual traditions of that would, as Hayek thought, inexorably lead to the emergence of totalitarian regimes throughout the Western world.’  Luhnow, they argued, resisted that framework, stating that ‘experience has already proven in too many cases that it is almost impossible to keep control of organizations of this sort.’”

Professor Van Horn’s work on the role of business in the development of economics is featured in the conference volume entitled: Symposium on the Contributions of Business to Economics in History of Political Economy (2017).  This volume contains work from top scholars in the world about the role of business in developing economics.   He organized the conference at Duke University in November 2015 that explored this topic.   

Some of his work on Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx was translated into German and displayed in 2020 at the Museum of Early Industrialization in Wuppertal, Germany.  His “Engels in Manchester” (2020) was displayed at Historisches Zentrum Wuppertal to Celebrate Its 200th Birthday. 

His work on the commercialization of science is one of his very best: “The Contract Research Organization and the Commercialization of Science” in Social Studies of Science (2005).  He wrote it with Phil Mirowski (Professor Emeritus, University of Notre Dame).  This article has 363 plus citations on Google Scholar and is cited in excellent journals from numerous fields: Advanced Science, Theory & Psychology, Social Studies of Science, PLoS Medicine, Environment and Society, Social Science & Medicine, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Small, Synthese, Science, Technology, & Human Values, European Journal for Philosophy of Science, Journal of Political Economy, and Journal of Ocular Pharmacology and Therapeutics.  

His work on the history of economics at Chicago was extensively cited and well reviewed by Douglas Irwin in his article “The Midway and Beyond: Recent Work on Economics at Chicago” in History of Political Economy (2018) 50(4): 735-775.  See: https://read.dukeupress.edu/hope/article/50/4/735/136708/The-Midway-and-BeyondRecent-Work-on-Economics-at  

Professor Van Horn is now writing a book on Milton Friedman and his most important scholarly contributions (Polity Press, forthcoming).  He is also writing a book on Aaron Director’s role in writing “The American Road to Serfdom” and building Chicago law and economics (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).  He has been asked to write a book on George Stigler, and he plans to do this.  

Professor Van Horn’s work has been greatly benefited from prominent grants—one from the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum.  He dedicated a large part of one of my summers to careful archival work in the Truman Presidential Library.  His wife Monica Van Horn helped tremendously.

Professor Van Horn’s work received invaluable support from two individuals.  1) Warren Samuels commented on Professor Van Horn’s paper at the 2006 History of Economics Society meeting at Grinnell College.  Professor Van Horn has used his esteemed comments to date.  Professor Van Horn invited Warren to the Building Chicago Economics Conference at the University of Notre Dame in 2007, and he met Warren Samuels for the first time there.  2) James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock were part of at spotlight event for young scholars at George Mason University in 2005; Professor Van Horn had a chance to meet both of then.  Six years later, in 2011, at the Southern Economics Association Conference, the Nobel-Prize winning economist, James Buchanan, commented on Professor Van Horn’s work.  Buchanan’s comments play a sine qua non in “Two Trajectories of Democratic Capitalism in the Postwar Chicago School” in Cambridge Journal of Economics and help Professor Van Horn’s research to date.