Frank Longstreth was a great friend and colleague. He was an inspiring academic scholar and thinker whose work contributed to the founding of historical institutionalism*, a very influential intellectual trend in comparative political economy.Since 1996, when I first met Frank, we began an intellectual journey that during the years involved intense and thought provoking discussions about Karl Polanyi's work, various national political economies in the EU and the European political economy more generally, US politics, the historical institutionalist approach but also the state of the political Left in the UK and around the world. We presented together our work at the International Karl Polanyi Conference in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2005 and visited the University of Shandong as part of an extended academic visit to China in 2007. Frank was an excellent cook and shared his excellent culinary creations as well as his extensive knowledge of jazz/rock/blues over many dinners with our families. Farewell my dear friend, you are greatly missed.
A short obituary of Frank can be found
here
* See in particular: Sven Steinmo, Kathleen Thelen, Frank Longstreth (eds) (1992)
Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism
in Comparative Analysis, Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
