Between Brothers

I. Karl and Michael Polanyi were members of a remarkable Hungarian family of Jewish origin. In the early years of our century they participated actively in Budapest's spirited intellectual and cultural life, principally through their association with the Galileo Circle, a radical student organization that chose Karl as its first president. From the beginning, however, the brothers approached the problems of society in different ways. Like many of the Galileoists, Karl looked to socialism for solution, and, as a result, developed a lifelong interest in the causal effect of economics on historical events.