Goldman was a professor of economics at Wellesley College and associate director of the Harvard Russian Research Center.
A frequent visitor to the republics of the former Soviet Union, Goldman was present during the August 1991 coup attempt.
Goldman taught American economics to students and general audiences while a Fulbright-Hays Lecturer at Moscow State University in 1977; and in 1980s, he was invited by the U.S.
He wrote for publications as Current History, Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Harvard Business Review.
His articles also appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and Science, and he was a frequent guest on CNN and Good Morning America.
A director of the Century Bank and Trust Company, the Jamestown Foundation, and Trustee of Northeast Investors, Goldman was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Economic Association.
His comments angered many Southerners as he compared the terrorists to people from Kentucky and Tennessee who "hate the government and regulation and go around attacking everyone".