Mira Wilkins

Bio

Mira Wilkins is an economic and business historian. Her expertise is on the history of foreign investment, particularly on the history of multinational enterprise. She is the author of four Harvard University Press books: The Emergence of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from the Colonial Era to 1914 (1970), The Maturing of Multinational Enterprise: American Business Abroad from 1914 to 1970 (1974), The History of Foreign Investment in the United States to 1914 (1989), and The History of Foreign Investment in the United States, 1914-1945 (2004). Her most recent book (William Hausman, Peter Hertner, and Mira Wilkins), Global Electrification: Multinational Enterprise and International Finance in the History of Light and Power, 1878-2007, was published in 2008. A new edition (with a new introduction) of her 1964 book, American Business Abroad: Ford on Six Continents, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2011. In addition, she has published other books and numerous scholarly articles. Her works are widely reviewed (to acclaim) and widely cited.

She is a past president of the Business History Conference and a fellow of the Academy of International Business. She is the recipient of many honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, FIU's Outstanding University Professor Award, and the Business History Conference's Lifetime Achievement Award.