About Peter Drucker
Born in Vienna on November 19, 1909, Peter Drucker had a profound impact on how people around the world organize themselves in the realms of business, government and civil society.
Drucker’s 39 books, along with his countless scholarly and popular articles, predicted many of the major developments of the late 20th century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to economic world power; the decisive importance of marketing and innovation; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning. In 1959, Drucker coined the term “knowledge worker,” and he spent the rest of his life examining an age in which an unprecedented number of people use their brains more than their backs.
Drucker’s first major work, The End of Economic Man, was published in 1939. Driven by an insatiable curiosity about the world around him—and a deep desire to make that world a better place—Drucker continued to write long after most others would have put away their pens. The result was a ceaseless procession of landmarks and classics: Concept of the Corporation in 1946, The Practice of Management in 1954, The Effective Executive in 1967, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices in 1973, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in 1985, Post-Capitalist Society in 1993, Management Challenges for the 21st Century in 1999.
Drucker, who had taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Bennington College, and New York University, spent the last 30-plus years of his career on the faculty at Claremont Graduate University. In 2001, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor. He died in November 2005, just shy of his 96th birthday.
