Viner fi rst developed his professional reputation through infl uential and densely erudite treatises on international trade and the history of economic thought. He then rose to public prominence in a role in the Trea sury Department that forced him to spend much of the 1930s shuffl ing between Chicago and Washington. … The department’s reputation for theoretical rigor derived largely from his infl uence.

Angus Burgin, The Great Persuasion, loc. 98