Douglas Fitzgerald Dowd

Douglas Fitzgerald Dowd (born December 7, 1919) is an American political economist, economic historian and political activist.

From the late 1940s to the late 1990s, he taught at Cornell University, UC Berkeley and other universities. He has authored books that criticize capitalism in general, and US capitalism in particular.

Now in his nineties and semiretired, he continues to publish and has, for many years, offered a free class in San Francisco, where he used to live for half of the year. Now he lives full-time in Bologna. He teaches at the nearby University of Modena.

Many of his writings and audio transcripts are available on his website.[1]

He is the son of a Jewish mother and a Catholic father. The strong dislike for each side of the family for the other side led him to embrace an antireligious attitude during his youth.[1]

Douglas Dowd is the father of Jeff Dowd, on whom the fictional character Jeff Lebowski, aka "The Dude," is based, in the Coen brothers cult comedy, "The Big Lebowski." [The source for this information is that I knew Jeff Dowd personally when I was a student at Cornell in the late 1960s when Douglas Dowd was an economics professor there. A google search on "The Seattle Seven," shows that Jeff Dowd was one of the seven. In the film, the Dude tells Maud Lebowski that he was one of the Seattle Seven. Jim Greenfield.]

He claims to be "non-religious" without saying if he is an agnostic or atheist. He was a young man during the US Depression years, and lived through and participated in most of the major social and political events over the decades. He was a pilot for the United States during World War II. His teaching and writings are peppered with colorful anecdotes and language, adding a very personal touch to his teaching. (Also, his comprehensive knowledge of history and historical events provides an excellent background to his "I was there" and "I did this" adventures.)

Dowd was one of the nominees of the Peace and Freedom Party for Vice President in the 1968 US presidential election. He agreed to be on the ticket in New York in order to prevent the selection of Jerry Rubin. The party's presidential candidate that year was Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver, who finished a distant fifth in the election.