Biography
W. Rand Smith is the Irvin L. and Fern D. Young Presidential Professor of Politics at Lake Forest College, where he has taught since 1977. Professor Smith earned his B.A. degree (Political Science, Honors) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan. He has also taught at Michigan, Northwestern University, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines (Paris), and the Institut d’Études Politiques de Grenoble.
Professor Smith’s research has mainly focused on the political economy of advanced industrial nations, notably France, Italy, and Spain. He has been especially interested in the responses of Left governments, parties, and unions to challenges arising from the ongoing reorganization of capital. His dissertation and first book focuses on the organization and action of the French labor movement at the factory level. The book Crisis in the French Labor Movement: A Grassroots Prospective (Macmillan/St. Martin’s, 1987) is based on extensive field work in four Grenoble factories over a span of nine years, including interviews with more than 150 activists of the two largest unions, the CGT and CFDT.
Professor Smith’s second book, The Left's Dirty Job: The Politics of Industrial Restructuring in France and Spain (University of Pittsburgh/University of Toronto, 1998) compares how Socialist governments in those two countries sought to adapt their core industries to changes in world markets during the 1980s and 1990s. Supported by grants from the Fulbright European Regional Research Program and the German Marshall Fund of the United States and based on over 100 interviews with political, labor, and business leaders, the book has been praised as “a valuable contribution to the field of comparative political economy” (Journal of Politics) and “an outstanding job...an important contribution to the literature on economic adjustment.” (Industrial and Labor Relations Review).
Professor Smith’s current book project, “Enemy Brothers: Socialists and Communists in France, Italy, and Spain,” compares Socialist-Communist relations across these three nations during the past four decades. It will be based on fieldwork and interviews in all three countries.
At Lake Forest College, Professor Smith regularly teaches courses on European and Latin American politics and political economy, as well as U.S. Energy and Environmental Policy. He also teaches a First Year Studies Seminar on Roots Music in American Society, which grows out of his passion for acoustic folk music. In addition to past service as department chair, Professor Smith has also served as associate dean of faculty (1995-2000) and interim provost and dean of the faculty (2004-2005). During the 2005-06 academic year, he was the Visiting Professor for the Associated Colleges of the Midwest Program in Florence, Italy.
