Thomas K. McCraw facts for kids

Thomas Kincaid McCraw (born September 11, 1940 – died November 3, 2012) was an American historian. He studied the history of business and taught at Harvard Business School. In 1985, he won the famous Pulitzer Prize for History. He earned this award for his book, Prophets of Regulation: Charles Francis Adams, Louis D. Brandeis, James M. Landis, Alfred E. Kahn. This book used stories about important people to explain complex ideas about how businesses are regulated.

About Thomas Kincaid McCraw

McCraw was born in Corinth, Mississippi. His father was a civil engineer working for the Tennessee Valley Authority. His father helped build dams. Because of his father's job, McCraw's family moved around a lot. He graduated from high school in Florence, Alabama.

McCraw went to the University of Mississippi. He had a scholarship from the ROTC. He earned his first degree in 1962. After college, he served as an officer in the United States Navy from 1962 to 1966. Then, he went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison for his advanced studies. He earned his PhD degree in 1970.

McCraw started his teaching career at the University of Texas at Austin. He joined Harvard Business School in 1978. At Harvard, he created a very popular course for MBA students. It was called "Creating Modern Capitalism." This course helped make business history more well-known at the school. The lessons from his course later became a textbook. This textbook is still used widely today.

Throughout his career, McCraw held many important roles. He was a member of the council for the Massachusetts Historical Society. He also served on the advisory board of the Nomura School of Advanced Management in Tokyo, Japan.

He married his childhood sweetheart, Susan Morehead, in 1962. They lived in Belmont, Massachusetts. They had three children: Elizabeth, Thomas Jr., and John. They also had three grandchildren.

Thomas Kincaid McCraw passed away in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2012. He had been dealing with heart and lung problems.

Books and Awards

Thomas McCraw wrote many books about business and its history. Some of his well-known books include:

• Morgan versus Lilienthal: The Feud within the TVA (1970)
• Prophets of Regulation: Charles Francis Adams, Louis D. Brandeis, James M. Landis, Alfred E. Kahn (1984)
• Creating Modern Capitalism: How Entrepreneurs, Companies, and Countries Triumphed in Three Industrial Revolutions (1997)
• The Intellectual Venture Capitalist: John H. McArthur and the Work of the Harvard Business School (1999)
• American Business, 1920-2000: How It Worked (2000)
• Prophet of Innovation: Joseph Schumpeter and Creative Destruction (2007)
• The Founders and Finance: How Hamilton, Gallatin, and Other Immigrants Forged a New Economy (2012)

In 1985, he won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for History. He received it for his book Prophets of Regulation. This book also won the Thomas Newcomen Award in 1986. Reviewers praised McCraw for being able to explain difficult economic ideas in a way that was easy to understand. He also had a special talent for showing how American traits, like not trusting big businesses, influenced how rules were made.