Mark McGann Blyth (born 29 September 1967)[5] is a Scottish-American political economist. He is currently the William R. Rhodes Professor of International Economics and Professor of International and Public Affairs at Brown University. At Brown, Blyth additionally directs the William R. Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.[6]


Mark McGann Blyth
Blyth in 2018
Born (1967-09-29) 29 September 1967 (age 56)
Dundee, Scotland
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom, United States
Alma materStrathclyde University
Columbia University
Known forGlobal Trumpism[4]
AwardsFinancial Times' 'Books of the Year 2013' for Austerity
Scientific career
FieldsPolitical economy
InstitutionsWatson Institute for International Studies and the Department of Political Science, Brown University
Thesis Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Political Change in the Twentieth Century  (1999)
Doctoral advisorsMark Kesselman,[1] Hendrick Spruyt[2][3]
Websitemarkblyth.com

Early life edit

Blyth grew up in Dundee, Scotland and was raised by his grandmother after his mother died shortly after child birth.[7] He played bass in rock bands and noted in an interview that "I was a musician from age 14 to 28. I've released five or six albums, but all with independent labels that never went anywhere. If they had, I wouldn't be here. I'd be lying on a beach with Heidi Klum."[8]

In 1991, Blyth received a Walker Bequest award from the University of Strathclyde and a Scottish International Educational Trust Award for Study in the United States. He eventually became a US citizen.[9]

Education and career edit

Blyth received a BA in political science from the University of Strathclyde in 1990. He went on to receive a MA in political science in 1993, an MPhil of political science in 1995, and a PhD in political science in 1999 from Columbia University.[10]

In 1997, Blyth joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University as an assistant professor of political science. From 2005 to 2009, he was an associate professor of political science at Johns Hopkins.[11]

In 2009, Blyth became a professor of international political economy at Brown University's Department of Political Science. Since 2014, he has been the Eastman Professor of Political Economy as part of a joint appointment at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies and the Department of Political Science.

As of 2020, Blyth is the William R. Rhodes '57 Professor of International Economics and Director of the Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance at Brown University.[12]

Blyth is known for his scholarship on economic ideas.[13] In International Political Economy, he is part of an "ideational turn" that offers sociologically informed approaches to markets and politics.[14]

Blyth criticized austerity in his book Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, which was described by Salon writer Elias Esquith as "necessary reading" and as an economics primer, a polemic, and a history that offers "insight into austerity's lineage, its theories, its champions and its failures... Mark Blyth's new book explains the damaging consequences of austerity in Europe and the U.S." Blyth characterized the argument advanced by austerity advocates as "a canard" and "complete horseshit".[15]

Using the term "Trumpism", Blyth argues that there are similar anti-establishment movements across the developed world.[16][17]

In August 2020, Blyth expressed his support for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom.[18] He sits on the Scottish Government's Advisory Council on transforming Scotland's economy, chaired by Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy Kate Forbes.[19]

Works edit

Books edit

  • Blyth, Mark (2002). Great Transformations: Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century (Hardcover ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81176-7. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  • Blyth, Mark, ed. (2009). Routledge Handbook of International Political Economy (IPE): IPE as a Global Conversation. Routledge. ISBN 9781135984007. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  • Abdelal, Rawi; Blyth, Mark; Parsons, Craig, eds. (2010). Constructing the International Economy. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801475887. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  • Blyth, Mark (2013). Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea (Hardcover ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-982830-2.
  • Boyd, William Lowe; Kerchner, Charles T.; Blyth, Mark, eds. (2008). The Transformation of Great American School Districts: How Big Cities are Reshaping Public Education. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press. ISBN 9781891792939. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  • Matthijs, Matthias; Blyth, Mark, eds. (2015). The Future of the Euro. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190233235. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  • Abdelel, Rawi; Blyth, Mark (2015). "Just who put you in charge? We did: CRAs and the politics of ratings". In Cooley, Alexander; Snyder, Jack (eds.). Ranking the World; Grading States as a Tool of Global Governance (Hardcover ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 39–59. ISBN 978-1-107-09813-8. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  • Lonergan, Eric; Blyth, Mark (2020). Angrynomics (Hardcover ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 9781788212786. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  • Blyth, Mark; Pontusson, Jonas; Baccaro, Lucio, eds. (2022). Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780197607855.

Selected articles edit

A more complete list can be found on Mark Blyth's curriculum vitae.[20]

References edit

  1. ^ "Mark J. Kesselman, Political Science, Columbia University". polisci.columbia.edu. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  2. ^ "Hendrik Spruyt, Department of Political Science, Northwestern University". www.polisci.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  3. ^ Great Transformations, Acknowledgments, "Special thanks must go to the principal members of my dissertation committee at Columbia University, Mark Kesselman and Henrick Spruyt."
  4. ^ Blyth, Mark (15 November 2016). "Global Trumpism". Foreign Affairs. ISSN 0015-7120. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
  5. ^ "Blyth, Mark, 1967-". Library of Congress Authorities. Retrieved 20 September 2018.
  6. ^ "Blyth, Mark". vivo.brown.edu. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
  7. ^ "Mark Blyth - Understanding the rise of populist politics in the West". Mark Blyth - Understanding the rise of populist politics in the West. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  8. ^ Nevils, Brooke (12 October 2006). "Things I've learned: Prof. Mark Blyth". The Johns Hopkins News-Letter.
  9. ^ Schwartzapfel, Beth. "Capitalism With Airbags". Brown Alumni Magazine. Brown Alumni Magazine. Retrieved 30 October 2013.
  10. ^ "BLYTH Mark McGann". World Who's Who. World Who's Who. Retrieved 28 December 2018.
  11. ^ "Happy Hour with Mark Blyth". Johns Hopkins Office of Alumni Relations. Retrieved 12 July 2017.
  12. ^ "Researchers@Brown". Brown University. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  13. ^ Béland, Daniel; Cox, Robert Henry, eds. (2010). Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199736430.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-973643-0.
  14. ^ McNamara, Kathleen R. (2009). "Of Intellectual Monocultures and the Study of IPE". Review of International Political Economy. 16 (1): 72–84. doi:10.1080/09692290802524117. ISSN 0969-2290. JSTOR 27756144. S2CID 145476039.
  15. ^ Esquith, Elias (11 February 2015). "Austerity Is 'Complete Horsesh*t': Ivy League Prof Dismantles the Conservative Lie". Salon. Retrieved 8 September 2020 – via AlterNet.
  16. ^ Blyth, Mark (15 November 2016). "Global Trumpism". Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
  17. ^ Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs (29 September 2016), Mark Blyth ─ Global Trumpism (Video), retrieved 17 February 2019
  18. ^ ""Economist Mark Blyth: 'I'm now a convert to Scottish independence'" (Interview with Mark Blyth) | Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy". watson.brown.edu. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  19. ^ "Delivering economic transformation - gov.scot". www.gov.scot. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
  20. ^ "Mark Blyth CV December 2018" (PDF). Brown University. Retrieved 8 September 2020.

Further reading edit

External links edit