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Tom Nicholas

Tom Nicholas currently is William J. Abernathy Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on linking historical U.S. patent records to Federal Censuses to examine the life cycle of inventors and their contributions to U.S. economic growth over the long run. After receiving his doctorate from Oxford University, he also taught at MIT's Sloan School of Management and at the London School of Economics.

Articles by this Author

The American method of high-risk, potentially high-reward investments has fueled innovation from New England whaling ventures to Silicon Valley start-ups such as Apple, Intel, Cisco, and Google.

Featured Articles

Rarely has the full story been told how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington. 

Often thought to have been a weak president, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or the political fallout.

Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.

Native American peoples and the lands they possessed loomed large for Washington, from his first trips westward as a surveyor to his years as President.