Robert Sobel (February 19,
1931 – June 2, 1999) was an American
professor of
history at Hofstra
University
, and a well-known and prolific writer of business
histories. He was also a chess
Master, who represented the United States
at the 1957 and 1958 Student chess Olympiads; he
defeated thirteen-year-old future World Champion Bobby Fischer at Montreal
1956.
Biography
Sobel was
born in the
Bronx
, in New York
City
, New
York
. He completed his B.S.S. (1951) and M.A.
(1952) at
City College of
New York
, and after serving in the U.S. Army, obtained a PhD
from New York
University
in 1957. He started teaching at Hofstra in
1956.
Sobel eventually became Lawrence Stessin
Distinguished Professor of Business
History at Hofstra
.
Since his death, the university established the
Robert Sobel
Endowed Scholarship for Excellence in Business History and
Finance.
Sobel's first business history, published in 1965, was
The Big
Board: A History of the New York Stock Market. It was the
first history of the stock market written in over a generation. The
book was met with favorable reviews, and solid sales, and Sobel's
writing career was launched. Several of his subsequent books were
best sellers.
Besides writing more than 30 books, Sobel others, authored many
articles, book reviews, and scripts for television documentaries
and mini-series. From 1972 to 1988, Sobel's weekly investment
column, "Knowing the Street," was nationally syndicated through New
York
Newsday. He was also regularly
published in national periodicals, including
The New York Times and
The Wall Street Journal. At the
time of his death, Sobel was also a contributing editor to
Barron's Magazine. He was
a regular guest on financial and other news shows, such as
Wall Street Week and
Crossfire.
Sobel was perhaps most famous for his only work of fiction, the
1973 book,
For Want of a
Nail.
This book is an alternate history in which
Burgoyne won the Battle of
Saratoga
during the American Revolutionary
War. This unique work was just like a real history book,
but detailing the history of an alternate timeline, complete with
footnotes. Sobel had authored, or co-authored, several actual text
books.
For Want of a Nail was republished in 1988 and won
several science fiction awards.
But
Sobel's dominant passion was Wall Street
, a metaphysical neighborhood that had fascinated
him since childhood. "It is as though you are walking
through a historical theme park, with this engaging man at your
side pointing out the sights," said
Andrew
Tobias, the author and investment guide, in a review in
The New York Times of
The Last Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1960's (W. W.
Norton, 1978).
Most of Sobel's books were written for a general audience, but he
never bristled when some scholarly writers dismissed him as a
"popularizer," said his colleague and friend George David Smith, a
professor of economic history at New York University. "Quite the
contrary -- he saw that as his mission in life."
Chess master
In his younger years, Sobel reached the
Master level in
chess.
He
defeated future World Champion
Bobby Fischer, who was a 13-year-old
Master at the time, in the first Canadian Open Chess
Championship in Montreal
1956, in a
sharp attacking game
(http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044415, Robert Sobel
vs Robert Fischer, Canadian Open, Montreal 1956, King's Indian
Defence (A49), 1-0). In that tournament, Sobel also defeated
eight-time
Canadian Chess
Championship winner
Maurice Fox.
Sobel
represented the United
States
at the Student Olympiad,
Reykjavik
1957, on the first reserve board, scoring 2.5/4 (+2
=1 -1), and the Americans placed fifth. He also played for
the U.S. in the 1958 Student Olympiad at Varna
, scoring 0/2
on the first reserve board, as the U.S. placed sixth
(http://www.olimpbase.org/playersy/brxtvjjd.html).
He tied
for 3rd-4th places in the 1957 New Jersey
Open Championship at East Orange
, with 5.5/7, a point behind Fischer, who won the
tournament and avenged his loss in Montreal to Sobel (The Games
of Robert J. Fischer, edited by
Robert Wade and
Kevin O'Connell, Batsford
1972, pp 138-40). Sobel seems to have given up serious competitive
chess soon after beginning his career as a Hofstra professor.
Notable chess games
Sobel, R -
Fischer, R (B70)CAN-op
Montreal (2), 1956
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.0-0 d6 6.Nc3 c5 7.e4
cxd4 8.Nxd4 Nc6 9.Nde2 Bd7 10.b3 Qc8 11.Bb2 Bh3 12.f3 Bxg2 13.Kxg2
d5 14.exd5 Rd8 15.Qc1 Nb4 16.a3 Nbxd5 17.Nxd5 Nxd5 18.Bxg7 Kxg7
19.c4 Qe6 20.Qb2+ Nf6 21.Nf4 Qf5 22.Nd5 e6 23.g4 Qg5 24.h4 Qxh4
25.Rh1 Qg5 26.Rxh7+ Kf8 27.Qxf6 1-0
Selected quotations
From Panic on Wall Street by Robert Sobel:
From a February 22, 1999
Barron's
Magazine article by Robert Sobel:
From The Great Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1920s, by Robert
Sobel:
Selected bibliography
Fiction
Non-fiction
Fan sites
- For All Nails "Sobel-heads" flesh out or
extend the history from the book For Want of a Nail.
- Alternative History "Sobel, must be numbered with
Tolkien among the handful of creators of a
complete imaginary world."
External links
References
- Hand, Judson, "If Washington Hadn't Been the Father of His
Country," Sunday News, 18
February 1973.
- Henriques, Diana B., "Robert Sobel, 68, a Historian of
Business, Dies," New York Times, 4
June 1999, page C-18; 1999 WLNR 3054857.
- MacGregor, Martha, "The Week in Books," New York Post, 31 March 1973.
- Sicilia, DB, "Remembering Robert Sobel (1931-1999)" Enterprise & Society: The International Journal of
Business History, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 182-187, (March
2000).
- Skow, John, "Parlor Games," Time, 9 April 1973.