Alfred Chandler, business historian, dies

Cambridge -- Alfred D. Chandler Jr., an economic historian who pioneered the study of organizational structure, has died at 88 in Cambridge, Mass.

Chandler retired from Harvard Business School in 1989. His death Wednesday was announced by the school, The New York Times reported.

Chandler's best-known book, "The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business," was published in 1977 and won Pulitzer and Bancroft prizes. He argued that professional management had replaced Adam Smith's "invisible hand."

Last year, Fortune Magazine called Chandler the country's "pre-eminent business historian."

Chandler taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins before joining the faculty at Harvard. He served as president of the Economic History Association and the Business History Conference, was a member of the American Philosophical Society and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son.

Copyright 2007 by United Press International.