Frank Longstreth obituary

28 November 2012
Dr Bryn Jones

 

Frank 'Stretch' Longstreth (Lecturer in Sociology)

1950 - 18 November 2012

 

Frank 'Stretch' Longstreth, who died following an irreversible stroke, was a pioneer analyst in the comparative, historical sociology of national economies; a thoughtful and nurturing teacher to generations of students; and a long-serving governor on local schools around Bath.

Born in Akron, Ohio in 1950, he was one of many American social science students who found the political and cultural environment of Britain, and the London School of Economics (LSE), more congenial than Nixon's Vietnam war regime.

After Harvard University in 1972, and his undergraduate year at LSE in 1973, his academic career began with an LSE doctoral investigation of the role and influence of the City of London on British economic policymaking. Publications from this PhD research were widely cited.

He then undertook a brief stint as a temporary lecturer at the University of Birmingham, which was followed by a permanent lectureship at the University of Bath in 1979.

As part of Professor Stephen Cotgrove's team of economic sociologists, he dissected Thatcherism's break with trade union corporatism (From Corporatism to Dualism? Thatcherism and the Climacteric of British Trade Unions in the 1980s). Then as one of an international group of scholars, he helped develop the emerging approach of historical institutionalism in political economy. Their co-edited, seminal book Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis (1992) identified national institutions as critical structuring variables in the development and divergence of political and economic regimes, both historically and geographically.

Mental health problems dogged Frank from the 1990s onwards and he was unable to contribute as much to these wider, intellectual currents. Nevertheless, he made further, more recent contributions to international networks, including a prescient 2007 talk on the Role of Financial Capital in European Integration to China's Shandong University.

Until his death, Frank remained a conscientious and inspiring teacher to generations of postgraduate and undergraduate students at the University of Bath. His encyclopaedic and versatile knowledge of many social science fields, as well as modern jazz, provided invaluable support to students and colleagues alike, while maintaining a personal touch that became increasingly rare as universities bureaucratised teaching.

He is survived by his ex-wife Judith, their children Kimber and Rachel and his present wife, the novelist and academic, Maureen Freely, their children Pandora and Helen, and his stepchildren Matthew and Emma.