Some instructors play only briefly a part in an economics department’s regular program. Today we have the Harvard assistant professor John Edward Sawyer who taught undergraduate American economic history for a few years at mid-20th century before going on to teach at Yale and ultimately becoming the president of his alma mater, Williams College. I have provided a memorial minute for some additional biographical information about Sawyer. The minute is followed by a list of topics and recommended reading for his American economic history course term paper as well as the required reading list.
An obituary for John Edward Sawyer by Henry B. Dewey was published at the American Antiquarian Society Proceedings of the Semiannual Meeting (April 22, 1995).
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Sawyer, John Edward (1917-1995)
Williams College President 1961-1973
By Prof. J. Hodge Markgraf (Williams Class of 1952)
In this nation, in this century, Jack Sawyer was a giant among leaders of higher education, among executives of philanthropic foundations, and among the pioneers in environmental studies. To all of these endeavors he brought high intelligence, wide knowledge, humanistic values and keen analysis.
It is his impact on this college that brought him national prominence and it is that leadership which this memorial minute celebrates. Jack’s involvement with Williams started early. He came to campus with his father, Class of ’08, and his brother, Class of ’37, before his own matriculation here as a freshman in September 1935. By the time he graduated magna cum laude with Highest Honors in History (he was the first thesis student of President James Phinney Baxter), he had joined a fraternity, been elected to Phi Beta Kappa, sung in the Glee Club, worked on the Gul , served as a Junior Advisor, and helped edit the Purple Cow magazine. The Class of 1939 was unique in this century because it provided four distinguished members of this faculty: in addition to Jack, they were Jim Burns, Bill Gates, and Jack Savacool.
Jack Sawyer’s next official connection to Williams came in 1952, when he was appointed a permanent trustee at age 34. He was named our 11th president in 1961; at age 44 he was the youngest Williams president in this century. He served as president for 12 years and, when he left in 1973, every aspect of this college was transformed: students, faculty, curriculum, administration, trustees, alumni, finances, and physical plant. It is difficult to convey the scope and manner of these changes. Within days of his arrival here he appointed a committee to study the fraternity question, and he had its report in less than a year. The trustees’ decision to replace fraternities with a residential house system set the stage for the construction of housing and dining facilities. A new record for annual alumni giving that winter of 1962-1963 helped dispel the notion that alumni were upset over this bold move. It should come as no surprise that the Alumni Fund outdid itself. Behind the scenes, generous donors assured Jack the goal would be exceeded, an action that thwarted a pro-fraternity group calling for funds to be withheld. At the same time, Jack experimented with more flexible admissions criteria (the so called 10% program), ended compulsory attendance for the classroom and the chapel, instituted paid assistant professor leaves, created the offices of provost and dean of the faculty, and was persuaded by four science faculty (only one of whom was tenured) to build a science center for research and computing.
In mid-decade he took the lead in revising the curriculum to include non-western studies, changing the college calendar to create the Winter Study Program, establishing the first center for environmental studies at the college level, increasing the number of African-American students, expanding the recruitment of women and minorities for faculty and administration positions, and completing a capital campaign eight times the scale of the previous one.
At the end of the decade he helped create the Twelve College Exchange Program, he engineered the change to coeducation here more sensitively than any other institution undergoing the same transition, and he was one of the leaders in establishing the New England Small College Athletic Conference. His last curricular contribution was the Graduate Program in the History of Art. Throughout the decade he increased the diversity of trustee membership by including women, minorities, and young alumni.
These extraordinary changes, for the most part, met with ready acceptance and surprising harmony. Jack’s presidency, however, was not without stress. There was the expected hostility from some alumni over the demise of fraternities, and there were objections from similar quarters over the coeducation decision. Internally, younger faculty in 1968 were expressing displeasure with an entrenched committee structure that dominated faculty governance. The result was the Faculty Steering Committee, the introduction of term limits for committee assignments, the addition of students to most faculty committees, and limited attendance by students at faculty meetings. In 1969 black students occupied offices in Hopkins Hall to protest deficiencies in the curriculum, in social and cultural events, and in admissions as they related to Afro-American concerns. What followed were increased staffing, funding, and diversity in the Afro-American Studies Program, in social and cultural events, in admissions and administrative activities.
Finally, in May 1970 the U.S. government’s military actions in southeast Asia, especially the Cambodian incursion, resulted in protests on many campuses. The deep feelings expressed by students and faculty at Williams, shared by Jack, led to the canceling of the last two weeks of classes and the suspension or postponement of final exams. Those were the easy moves. He then organized delegations of students, faculty, and trustees to call on members of Congress to press the case for disengagement. It was characteristic of him to insist that a trustee be part of each delegation in order to demonstrate a consensus within this college community. These public crises were not easy for Jack because many of the college’s constituencies were neither shy nor uncertain about offering advice. The fact that we survived as well as we did is testimony to his leadership and that of many others.
Throughout his public career Jack’s leadership reflected his sense of stewardship. He was acutely aware that the institutions he led were entrusted to him for only a short time and that prior events implied both limitations and opportunities. Above all else, however, he aspired to lead a life that was useful and, in doing so here, his vision for Williams redefined this college. His multiple initiatives were all part of a larger schema. His horizon was further and his sight was clearer than most of his contemporaries. He was wise, compassionate, witty, gracious, and extraordinarily well read. He cared foremost about people and ideas. His desire to effect meaningful change and his ability to chart the clearest pathway sometimes resulted in an attention to detail that not everyone appreciated. In observing these situations, I was convinced that such micromanagement did not stem from pettiness or a need for power, but rather from an unavoidable desire to have everyone’s energies coherent and focused.
Sometimes his analytical prowess could not be restrained. During CAP interviews with faculty candidates, he occasionally became so engaged with their description of the doctoral thesis that he would redesign their expositions and suggest an additional chapter or two, citing the key primary literature that ought to be consulted. Applicants’ responses ranged from barely-concealed resentment to profound gratitude.
The biographical facts are these. John Edward Sawyer was born in Worcester, Massachusetts, on 5 May 1917. He attended Deerfield Academy, obtained an A.B. degree from Williams, and earned an A.M. degree from Harvard in 1941. He completed all requirements for a Ph.D. except the thesis before serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1946, assigned to the Office of Strategic Services in Washington, North Africa and Europe. He than returned to Harvard as a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows (1946-1949) and as an Assistant Professor (1949-1953). He was an Associate Professor at Yale University (1953-1961) before becoming President of Williams College (1961-1973). In 1974 he became Vice President of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and served as its President from 1975 until his retirement in 1987 at age 70.
His many honors included the U.S. Navy Bronze Star medal, thirteen honorary degrees, the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal, the Phi Beta Kappa Award for Distinguished Service to the Humanities, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Chairman’s Award, and the Williams College Bicentennial Medal.
In June 1941 he married Anne Swift, who in 1984 was the first recipient of the college’s Ephraim Williams Medal. Jack Sawyer died in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on 7 February 1995 at age 77.
His foremost legacy is this college. His life was splendidly useful.
Source: Markgraf, J. Hodge. “John Edward Sawyer.” 8 March 1995. Williams College Faculty Meeting Minutes. Williams College Archives. Also available online at Williams College, Special Collections, Williams History—Presidents.
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Course Announcement
Economics 136 (formerly Economics 36a). Economic History: The Growth of an Industrial Economy in the United States
Half-course (spring term). Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12. Assistant Professor Sawyer.
Source: Final Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1950-51. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XLVII, No. 23 (September 1950), p. 81.
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Course Enrollment
[1949-50]
[Economics] 136a. (formerly Economics 36a). Economic History: The Growth of an Industrial Economy in the United States. (Sp) Assistant Professor Sawyer.
Total 68: 1 Graduate, 18 Seniors, 25 Juniors, 15 Sophomores, 4 Radcliffe 5 Other.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1949-50, p. 73.
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1949-50
Economics 136
Undergraduate Papers
Each student will prepare a paper due not later than May 15 on a problem in American economic history since 1800.
The paper is to be 10-15 pages in length (3,000 – 4,000 words). It is to be based on an additional 300-500 pages of reading, usually from more than one book, on one of the topics suggested below; or on other topics or books of special interest to the student for which he has secured the approval of the instructors.
The paper is not to be a mere descriptive summary of the reading. The student should rather draw on the reading, and the sum of his work in history and economics, to discuss an important economic problem within the topic on which he has read.
Each student is responsible for getting his own books and for submitting as early as practical a one-paragraph statement of his reading plans and of the problem he expects to deal with (the latter may, of course, change as the reading progresses). The final paper should indicate the reading on which it is based and the sources (including other courses) on which the paper has drawn.
The following examples illustrate the kind of problems which a paper might treat within some of the different topics:
- The relationship between technological change and the growth of a particular industry.
- The factors that prevented the development of a Central Bank in the United States in the 19th
- The role of the railroad in the growth of a particular market area.
- The role of transportation and location in the economic growth of a given city.
- The role of Rockefeller (or any other business man) in the growth of large-scale enterprise, his attitudes towards competition and the economic conditions behind these attitudes.
1800 – 1880’s
Geography and Land
E.C. Semple, American History and Its Geographic Conditions
R.M. Robins, Our Landed Heritage
B.E. Hibbard; A History of the Public Land Policies
A.M. Sakolski, The Great American Land Bubble
P.W. Gates, The Wisconsin Pine Lands
K. Coman, Economic Beginnings of the Far West
Population
W.W. Thompson and P.K. Whelpton, Population Trends in the U.S.
Census Monograph, 1909, A Century of Population Growth, 1790-1900
M.L. Hansen, The Atlantic Migration
M.L. Hansen, The Immigrant in American History
Transportation
J.G.B. Hutchins, American Maritime Industries and Public Policy, 1789-1914
R.G. Albion, The Rise of the New York Port
W.J. Lane, From Indian Trail to Iron Horse
Cleveland and Powell, Railroad Promotion and Capitalization in the U.S.
P.W. Gates, The Illinois Central Railroad and its Colonization Policies
U.B. Philips, A History of Transportation in the Eastern Cotton Belt
R.C. Overton, Burlington West
R.F. Riegel, Story of the Western Railroads
E.C. Kirkland, Men, Cities and Transportation
W.F. Gephart, Transportation and the Development of the Middle West
Development of Markets
L.E. Atherton, The Pioneer Merchant in Mid-America
F.M. Jones, Middleman in the Domestic Trade of the U.S.
T.S. Berry, Western Prices before 1861, A Study of Cincinnati Market
R.G. Albion, The Rise of the Port of New York, 1815-1860
J.W. Livingood, The Philadelphia-Baltimore Trade Rivalry, 1780-1860
G.S. Callendar, The Early Transportation and Banking Enterprises of the States, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. XVII
Technological Progress
Leo Rogin, Introduction of Farm Machinery in Relation to Productivity of Agriculture
F. McCormick, The Development of Farm Machinery
J.V. Roe, English and American Toolmakers
A.P. User, A History of Mechanical Inventions
S.C. Gilfilan, The Sociology of Inventions
[and] Inventing the Ship
Industrial Growth
V.S. Clark, The History of Manufactures in the U.S., Vols. I, II
R.M. Tryon, Household Manufacture in the U.S., 1640-1860
A.H. Cole, American Wool Manufacture, 2 vols.
C.F. Ware, The Early New England Cotton Manufacture
M.T. Parker, Lowell, A Study in Industrial Development
V. Schlakman, Economic History of a Factory Town
C.M. Green, Holyoke, Massachusetts
J.R. Commons, History of Labor in the U.S., Vols. I, II
N.J. Ware, The Industrial Worker, 2 vols.
Business Organization and Government Policy
Cochran and Miller, The Age of Enterprise
Oscar Handlin, Commonwealth: Massachusetts 1774-1861
Louis Hartz, Economic Policy and Democratic Thought
W.J. Lane, Cornelius Vanderbilt
Sidney Ratner, Social History of American Taxation
F.W. Taussig, Tariff History of the U.S.
J.S. Davis, Essays in the Earlier History of American Corporations, 2 vols.
J.W. Cadman, Jr., The Corporation in New Jersey: Business and Politics, 1791-1875
Role of Capital and Economic Growth
N.J. Silverling, The Dynamics of Business
W.B. Smith and A.H. Cole, Fluctuations in American Business, 1790-1860
L.H. Jenks, The Migration of British Capital to 1875
G.W. Van Vleck, The Panic of 1857
R.G. McGrane, Foreign Bondholders and American State Debts
R.A. Foulke, The Sinews of American Commerce
Money and Banking
M.S. Myers, The New York Money Market, Vol. I
D.R. Dewey, State Banking before the Civil War
R.A. Lester, Monetary Experiments
E.R. Tauss, Central Banking Functions of the Treasury
H.E. Miller, Banking Theories in the US. before 1860
A.B. Hepburn, A History of Coinage and Currency in the U.S.
R.C.H. Catterall, The Second Bank of the U.S., 2 vols.
N.S.B. Gras, The Massachusetts First National Bank of Boston, 1784-1934
Agricultural Expansion
L.B. Schmidt and Ross, Readings in the Economic History of American Agriculture
Bidwell and Falconer, History of Agriculture in the Northern States, 1620-1860
L.C. Gray, History of Agriculture in the Southern U.S. to 1860
E.E. Edwards, American Agriculture—the First 300 Years in Yearbook of Agriculture, 1940
A.W. Griswold, Farming and Democracy
The Social Impact of Economic Change
Joseph Dorfman, The Economic Mind in American Civilization
C.M. Green, Holyoke, Massachusetts
Oscar Handlin, Boston’s Immigrants
R.R. Russell, The Economic Aspects of Southern Sectionalism
P.S. Foner, Business and Slavery
T.D. Clark, Pills, Petticoats and Plows: The Southern Country Store
1880’s — 1940’s
Population
M.L. Hansen, The Immigrant in American History
Carter Goodrich and Associates, Migration and Economic Opportunity
National Resources Com., The Problems of a Changing Population
Land Policy
R.M. Robbins, Our Landed Heritage
B. H. Hibbard, A History of Public Land Policies
Transportation
Sidney L. Miller, Inland Transportation
Stuart Daggett, Railroad Reorganization
J.I. Bogen, The Anthracite Roads
J.E. Otterson, Foreign Trade and Shipping
W.Z. Ripley, Railroads: Rates and Regulation
W.Z. Ripley, Railroads: Finance and Organization
U.S. National Resources Planning Board, Transportation and National Policy, Part II, Section 1, Air Transport
K.T. Healy, The Economics of Transportation in America
C.E. Puffin, Air Transportation, 1941
Technological Progress
L.L. Corwin, TNEC Monograph 22, Technology in Our Economy
Harry Jerome, Mechanization in Industry
National Resources Planning Committee, Technological Trends and National Policy
N.R. Danielian, A.T.&T.
Holland Thompson, The Age of Invention
A.A. Bright, The Electric Lamp Industry
W.R. MacLaurin, Innovation and Invention in the Radio Industry
Industrial Growth
Solomon Fabricant, The Output of Manufacturing Industries
Ralph Epstein, The Automobile Industry
Rudolph Clemen, The American Livestock and Meat Industry
Victor Clark, History of Manufactures in the U.S., Vols. II, III
G.E. McLaughlin, Growth of Manufacturing Areas
H. Barger and S. Schwartz, The Mining Industries, 1899-1939
J.B. Walker, Epic of American Industry
Pearce Davis, Development of the Glass Industry
D.H. Wallace, Market Control of the Aluminum Industry
P.A. Rickard, A History of American Mining
Money and Banking
Margaret Myers, The New York Money Market
G.H. Edwards, The Evolution of Finance Capitalism
National Industrial Conference Board, The Banking Situation in the U.S., 1932
W.Z. Ripley, Main Street and Wall Street
W.C. Mitchell, History of Greenbacks
E.R. Tauss, Central Banking Functions of the Treasury
H.E. Miller, Banking Theories in the U.S. before 1860
A.D. Noyes, Forty Years of American Finance
B.U. Ratchford, American State Debts
W.G. Schultz and M.R. Caine, Financial Development of the U.S.
Income and Economic Growth
Simon Kuznets, National Income: A Summary of Findings
Colin Clark, The Conditions of Economic Progress
N.J. Silberling, The Dynamics of Business
National Industrial Conference Board, Studies in Enterprise and Social Progress
TNEC Monograph 37, Saving, Investment, and National Income
TNEC Monograph 12, Profits, Productive Activities and New Investment
Report of the Committee on Recent Economic Changes in U.S., 2 Vols, 1929
Agriculture
L.B. Schmidt and E.D. Ross, Readings in the Economic History of American Agriculture
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1940 Yearbook of Agriculture
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1940 Yearbook of Agriculture
Fred Shannon, The Farmer’s Last Frontier
H. Barger, and H.H. Landsbert, American Agriculture 1899-1939
R.P. Brooks, The Agrarian Revolution in Georgia 1865-1912
J.D. Black, Agricultural Reform in the U.S.
A.W. Griswold, Farming and Democracy
Geoffrey Shepherd, Marketing Farm Products
Labor
J.R. Commons, etc., History of Labor in the U.S., Vols III, IV, 1935
L.L. Lorwin, The American Federation of Labor
C.E. Bonnett, Employer’s Associations in the U.S., 1922
H. Millis and R. Montgomery, The Economics of Labor, 3 vols, 1945
Slichter, Union Policies and Industrial Management
Samuel Gompers, Seventy Years of Life and Labor, 1925
E.W. Bakke, The Unemployed Worker
P.F. Brissenden, The I.W.W., A Study in American Syndicalism
Business Organization and Government Policy
H.R. Seager and C.A. Gulick, Trust and Corporation Problems, 1929
M.W. Watkins, Industrial Concentration and Public Policy
A.H. Burns, The Decline of Competition, 1936
R.W. Brady, Business as a System of Power, 1941
B.H. Williams, The Economic Foreign Policy of the U.S.
F.W. Taussig, Tariff History of the U.S.
Keith Sward, The Legend of Henry Ford
A.T. Mason, Brandeis and the Modern State
A. Nevins, J.D. Rockefeller
The Social Impact of Economic Change
T.C. Cochran and W. Miller, The Age of Enterprise
Economic Growth, Journal of Economic History, Supplement to Vol. VII, 1948
T.W. Arnold, The Folklore of Capitalism, 1937
L.D. Brandeis, Other People’s Money, 1914
C.D. Thompson, Confessions of the Power Trust, 1932
R.S. and H.M. Lynd, Middletown, 1929; and Middletown in Transition, 1937
James West, Plainville, U.S.A., 1945
George Soule, Prosperity Decade, 1947
Broadus Mitchell, Depression Decade, 1947
A.M. Schlesinger, The Rise of the City
Ida Tarbell, The Nationalizing of Business, 1878-1898
H.U. Faulkner, The Quest for Social Justice, 1898-1914
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 4, Folder “Economics, 1949-1950 (2 of 3)”.
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Economics 136
Spring term
Required reading list — 1950-51
A textbook is used in this course to provide a comprehensive historical survey complementary to the more topically organized lectures. Each student will normally buy, along with other books marked with an asterisk below, one of the following texts:
Recommended for general undergraduate use:
Kirkland, E.C., A History of American Economic Life, Rev. Ed. (Crofts)
Recommended for graduate students and undergraduates seeking a more advanced text:
Williamson, H.F., The Growth of the American Economy (Prentice Hall)
Historical Statistics of the United States, 1789-1945 (Govt Printing Office)
Reading assignments up to the Hour Test (tentatively March 21)
Text: Kirkland, Chs. IV-XI or equivalent in Williamson (approximately the first half)
Other reading (in the order given):
*Franklin, Benj., Autobiography, any edition, entire, or equivalent to pp. 6-38, 75-149, 216-34 of the Modern Library edit.
Taylor, George R., ed., The Turner Thesis, Problems in American Civilization (Heath), sections 1, 4 – 9.
Taylor, George R., ed., Jackson vs. Biddle, Problems in American Civilization (Heath), sections 1- 10
Reading on capital formation
*Manning and Potter, Gov’t and the American Economy (Holt) pp. 35–73, 75-115
Reading assignments between the Hour Test and Reading Period
Text: Kirkland, Chs. XII-XVII or equivalent in Williamson (approximately second half)
Other readings (in order given):
Manning and Potter, ibid., 75-115, 8[?]-23
Reading on business cycles
Shannon, Fred A., The Farmer’s Last Frontier (Farrar and Rinehart). Chs. V-IX, XV
Millis and Montgomery, Organized Labor, Ch. II and III, and Manning and Potter, ibid., 117-60, 161-200
Berle and Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property, selections
Reading period (tentatively)
Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Parts II-IV
An essay of 10-15 pages on some problem in American economic history will be due approximately one week before the end of the reading period.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1950-1951 (1 of 3)”.
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[Final] Reading Period Assignment
May 7-May 26, 1951
Economics 136:
J. A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy. Preface to the Second Edition and Parts II and III
H. C. Simons, Economic Policy for a Free Society, Chapters I and II
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 5, Folder “Economics, 1950-1951 (1 of 3)”.
Image Source: John Edwards Sawyers in 1970.