William J. Barber is Andrews Professor of Economics, Emeritus, at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut where he taught from 1957 to 1993.
Professor Barber has had a long-standing interest in economic theory and the history of economic thought. In addition, he has engaged in research on the economic problems of underdeveloped countries. Much of this work has been concentrated on Africa (particularly Central and East Africa). In 1961–62 he was a member of a study group directed by Gunnar Myrdal, working on problems of economic development in South Asia. He is the author of The Economy of British Central Africa.
His other books include British Economic Thought and India, 1600-1858; From New Era to New Deal: Herbert Hoover, the Economists, and American Economic Policy, 1921–1933; and Designs Within Disorder: Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Economists, and the Shaping of American Economic Policy, 1933–1945. He is the principal author and editor of Breaking the Academic Mould: The Economists and American Higher Learning in the Nineteenth Century. He is also editor of Works of Irving Fisher (in fourteen volumes) and provided commentary on significant American contributions to economic discourse in the nineteenth century; this material, in six volumes, has been published in Pickering and Chatto’s series on Early American Economics. His most recent book, Gunnar Myrdal: An Intellectual Biography, appeared in 2007.
Professor Barber has served of the president of the History of Economics Society (1989–1990). In 2002, he was named a Distinguished Fellow of that society.