Jacob Soll, PhD

Born in 1968, Jacob Soll is University Professor and professor of philosophy, history, and accounting at the University of Southern California. He received a D.E.A. from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France, and a Ph.D. from Magdalene College, Cambridge University.  He has taught at Cambridge University, Princeton University, Rutgers University, and the European University Institute in Fiesole, Italy.

Soll has been awarded numerous prestigious prizes including the Journal of the History of Ideas Forkosch Prize, the Jacques Barzun Prize from the American Philosophical Society, a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEH Fellowships, and, in 2011, the $500,000 MacArthur “Genius Prize” Fellowship.

Soll’s first book, Publishing “The Prince” (2005), examines how Machiavelli's work was popularized and influenced modern political thought. In his second book, The Information Master (2009), Soll investigates how Louis XIV's famous finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert fused financial management and library sciences to create one of the first modern information states

Soll’s third book, The Reckoning: Financial Accountability and the Rise and Fall of Nations (2014), presents a sweeping history of accounting and politics, drawing on a wealth of examples from over two millennia of human history to reveal how accounting can used to both build kingdoms, empires and entire civilizations, but also to undermine them.  It explains the origins of our own financial crisis as deeply rooted in a long disconnect between human beings and their attempts to manage financial numbers.  The Reckoning has sold more than 100,000 copies worldwide.

His fourth book, Free Market: The History of an Idea (Basic Books/Hachette, September 6, 2022) traces the origins and evolution of economic thought, from Cicero to Milton Friedman, showing that Louis XIV’s proto-authoritarian minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert had a much clearer view of modern wealth creation than Adam Smith and discusses how free markets will work in an age of crisis and democratic decay. The Financial Times called it “A timely and erudite book...incisive.” The Guardian said “Free Market offers a rich and valuable antidote to narrower and more traditional accounts of the liberal economic tradition.”

His most recent book, Public Net Worth: Accounting, Government, and Democracy (Palgrave, 2024), co-authored with Ian Ball, Willem Buiter, John Crompton, and Dag Detter looks at the necessity of balance sheets in government management.  Martin Wolf of the Financial Times has said this “Important book” is a “call for sensible change” in government management and named it one of the best economic books of the summer, 2024.

Soll is a regular contributor to the New York Times, Politico, the Boston Globe, The New Republic, PBS, Salon.com and the Chronicle of Higher Education.

He has spent the last several years directly involved with policy questions concerning the Greek debt crisis, working with Greek, EU and private stake-holders, and has worked with the Greek and Portuguese governments on financial reform.  He has also worked closely with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whom he advises.  Mixing historical scholarship with policy studies, he is now a noted independent public spokesperson for value of the humanities in understanding politics, economics, government transparency, international financial standards and professional accounting ethics.   In 2025, he will be distinguished visiting professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.