The Social Science series of the London publisher Swan and Sonnenschein comprised 120 books back at the turn of the 20th century. Economics in the Rear-view Mirror now has a page with links to 116 of the titles!
Category: Sociology
The 1913 Harvard economics Ph.D. alumnus we meet today managed to cross at least one Dean and later one of his bosses in a government job (see below). Indeed his argumentative nature gets noted in Richard J. Linton’s History of the NLRB Judges Division with Special Emphasis on the Early Years (August 1, 2004), p. 10:
As Chief Judge Bokat describes in his March 1969 oral history interview … some of the judges did not sit silently at such conferences. He reports that Judge Charles Persons was one who would argue vociferously with, particularly, Member Leiserson. …Judge Bokat tells us that there would be Judge Persons, who was not a lawyer (and neither was Member Leiserson), debating legal issues with Leiserson in the presence of several who were lawyers.
In case you are wondering: Charles Edward Persons does not appear to be closely related (if at all) to his contemporary, Warren Persons, an economics professor at Harvard at the time.
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Charles Edward Persons
Vital Records
Born: July 17, 1878 in Brandon, Iowa.
Spouse: Margaret Murday (1888-1956)
Son: William Burnett Persons (1918-1992)
Daughter: Jean Murday Persons (1922-1994)
Died: April 1, 1962
Buried: Arlington National Cemetery
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Academic and Public/Government Career Timeline
1903. A.B. Cornell College, Iowa.
1905. A.M. Harvard University.
1907-08. Wellesley. Instructor in Economics.
Industrial History of the United States. (One division, three hours a week; one year) 9 students enrolled: 4 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Sophomore.
1908-09. Wellesley. Instructor in Economics.
Industrial History of the United States. (One division, three hours a week; one year) 5 students enrolled: 3 Seniors, 2 Juniors.
Industrial History of England. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 18 students enrolled: 5 Seniors, 7 Juniors, 6 Sophomore.
Socialism. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 14 students enrolled: 5 Seniors, 9 Juniors.
Labor Movement in the Nineteenth Century. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 16 students enrolled: 7 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 6 Sophomores.
Selected Industries. (One division, one hour a week; one year) 52 students enrolled: 2 Seniors, 6 Juniors, 38 Sophomores, 6 Freshmen.
Municipal Socialism. (One division, three hours a week; one semester) 7 students enrolled: 2 Seniors, 5 Juniors.
1909-10. Princeton. Preceptor in History, Politics and Economics.
1910-11. Northwestern. Instructor of Economics.
1913. Ph.D. (Economics). Harvard University.
Thesis title: Factory legislation in Massachusetts: from 1825 to the passage of the ten-hour law in 1874. Pub. in “Labor laws and their enforcement,” New York, Longmans, 1911, pp. 1-129.
1913-16. Washington University, St. Louis. Assistant/Associate Professor of Sociology.
Principles of Economics, Elements of Sociology, Labor and Labor Problems, Population Problems, Social Reform, Sociology Seminar.
1917-20. U.S. Army.
Persons, Charles Edward, A.M. ’05; Ph.D. ’13. Entered Officers’ Training Camp, Fort Riley, Kans., May 1917; commissioned 1st lieutenant Infantry August 15; assigned to 164th Depot Brigade, Camp Funston, Kans.; transferred to Company K, 805th Pioneer Infantry, August 1918; sailed for France September 2; returned to United States June 27, 1919; ill in hospital; discharged January 31, 1920. Engagement: Meuse-Argonne offensive. Source: Harvard’s Military Record in the World War, p. 751.
1920-26. Professor and Head of Economics, College of Business Administration, Boston University. Boston, Mass.
Persons refused to support a student volunteer (Beanpot) candy sale project in 1922 pushed by the Dean to fund a Business College War Memorial. Persons believed “that the quality of the candy to be sold had been misrepresented, and also … that a disproportionate share of the profits would go to one or more persons teaching in the College of Business Administration and actively concerned in the management of the sale.”
Sabbatical year 1927-28. (June 16, 1927) informed by Dean it would be inadvisable for him to return after his sabbatical year. He fought the Dean and the Dean won…
Source: Academic Freedom and Tenure, Committee A. Bulletin of the American Association of University Professors, Vol. 15, No. 4 (April 1929), pp. 270-276.
1927-28. Harvard. Lecturer.
Economics 6a 2hf. Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.
1928-29. Harvard. Lecturer.
Economics 6a 1hf. Trade Unionism and Allied Problems.
Economics 6b 2hf. Labor Legislation and Social Insurance.
Economics 34 2hf. Problems of Labor.
ECONOMICS PROFESSOR IS GIVEN FEDERAL POSITION
C.E. Persons Appointed Expert on Economics of Unemployment
Professor Charles E. Persons, for the past year lecturer in the Department of Economics here has been appointed Expert on the Economics of Unemployment in the Federal Bureau of the Census. He will take up his new duties immediately.
At Harvard Professor Persons gave courses in Trade Unionism and Labor Legislation. In his previous career, aside from service in the United States Army during the war, he has been a member of the faculties of Wellesley College and of Princeton, Northwestern and Washington Universities. At the Bureau of the Census Professor Persons will have general supervision of the census of unemployment and of special studies subsidiary thereto.
Source: The Harvard Crimson, November 15, 1929
Row Over Census Of Jobless In U. S. Bureau Is Revealed
Dispute Led Up To Resignation Of Professor Persons, Expert Economist—June 26 Statement Believed Not To Give True Insight Into Situation
The Baltimore Sun, July 9, 1930, p. 2.
Washington, July 8. The census of unemployment, started in the belief it would throw light on a distressing public problem, threatens to involve the Hoover Administration in another controversy.
The question is being asked in many quarters as to whether the unemployment census is to be a real statistical investigation designed to bring out every possible fact or merely a routine enumeration, the result of which are to be used a far as possible to bolster up business confidence.
Two developments have brought this issue to the front. One is the disclosure that an expert economist employed last November to direct the unemployment census has resigned after prolonged disagreement with officials of the Census Bureau. The other is the preliminary unemployment count released through the Department of Commerce on June 26. Careful analysis of this statement has convinced more than one observer that it tells only a part of what it purports to tell.
Expert Economist Resigned
The resignation of the expert economist, Prof. Charles E. Persons, formerly of Boston University and more recently of Harvard University, occurred in May, but the controversy which led up to the resignation is only now coming to light.
The details of the row remain to be disclosed. The Census Bureau declines to say anything about the matter, except that Professor Persons resigned and that his resignation was not requested. Professor Persons likewise refuses to discuss the incident.
It is known, however, that prolonged friction preceded the decision of Professor Persons to quit and the impression grows that the economist was not allowed a free hand to pursue such statistical inquiries as he believed to be necessary.
Covered Only One Phase
Although the census statement on unemployment of June 26 was issued more than a month after Professor Persons left the service, an analysis of that statement throw an interesting light on the uses to which the results of the enumeration of jobless are being put.
The unemployment census includes two schedules, one in which persons capable of work but having no jobs are listed, and another which include persons having jobs but laid off as a result of business depression or for other causes.
The statement of June 26 covers only the first schedule. It finds there were 574,647 jobless persons among 20,264,480 persons enumerated. But it takes no account of the large number of persons actually idle, though technically in possession of jobs, for the reason the statement does not, in the opinion of not a few who have studied the subject, give an accurate picture of the unemployment situation.
Information Only Partial
Its finding that only two per cent of the enumerated population are unemployed is regarded as affording no true insight into the actual extent to which men and women are out of work, and there is a disposition in some quarters to criticize the issuance of such partial information. This disposition is underlined by the fact that the figures, as disclosed, fit in with the general policy of optimism on which the Administration has embarked.
The Census Bureau, in its statement, alluded to the partiality of its figures. It says that no records from the second schedule are yet available but there is no mention of this fact in Secretary Lamont’s rosy statement that the preliminary figures “applied to the whole population show much less unemployment than was generally estimated.”
Would Not Justify Optimism
Outside the Census Bureau it is believed that had the enumeration included both schedules in the unemployment census the result would have been much different and much less useful in supporting the optimism with which the Administration approaches this subject.
There is also a disposition in unofficial quarters to question the Census Bureau’s decision to base the percentage of unemployment on population.
It is pointed out that only about one in five of the total population is actually employed as a wage earner, and that a true percentage of unemployment would be based on the number of persons capable of work and not on the total population. On the basis of working population, the percentage of unemployment as found by the Census Bureau’s own figures would be ten percent, instead of two.
After Persons’ Census Resignation
HAVERHILL—Charles E. Persons, former director of federal census on unemployment at Washington, was appointed district manager of Haverhill Shoeworkers’ Protective Union.
Source: The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), December 6, 1930, p. 20.
HAVERHILL, Aug 9—Charles E. Persons, N.R.A. labor advisor, visited this city yesterday in a two days’ survey of shoe centers of Massachusetts preparatory to hearings which will be held shortly in Washington on the proposed code for the shoe industry…
Source: The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts), August 9, 1933, p. 15.
Charles E. Persons was identified as assistant to F. E. Berquist, chairman of the research and planning division of the national NRA headquarters.
Source: The South Bend Tribune (South Bend, Indiana), September 18, 1934, p. 3.
Last-stage.
1937-1949. (Date entered on duty: June 1, 1937) National Labor Relations Board Judge (trial-examiner).
Likely final case as trial examiner found in September 29, 1949 Olin Industries, Inc. (Winchester Repeating Arms Co Division). [Commerce Clearing House, Chicago. National Labor Relations Board—Decisions].
Source: See, Richard J. Linton, Administrative Law Judge (Retired), National Labor Relations Board. A History of the NLRB Judges Division with Special Emphasis on the Early Years (August 1, 2004).
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Chronological List of Publications
[with affiliations at the time of publication]
Chapter 1 “The Early History of Factory Legislation in Massachusetts” in Persons, C. E., Parton, Mabel, and Moses, Mabelle. Labor Laws and Their Enforcement with Special Reference to Massachusetts. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1911.
[Charles E. Persons, formerly Henry Bromfield Rogers Memorial Fellow, Harvard University, Instructor in Economics, Northwestern University.]
Marginal Utility and Marginal Disutility as Ultimate Standards of Value, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 27, No. 4 (August 1913), pp. 547-578.
[by Charles E. Persons, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]
Women’s Work and Wages in the United States, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 29, No. 2 (February 1915), pp. 201-234.
[by C. E. Persons, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]
Estimates of a Living Wage for Female Workers, Publications of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 14, No. 110 (June 1915), pp. 567-577.
[by Charles E. Persons, Associate Director of the School for Social Economy, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]
Teaching the Introductory Course in Economics, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 31, No. 1 (November 1916), pp. 86-107.
[by Charles E. Persons, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.]
Review of Outlines of Economics by Richard T. Ely et. al. The American Economic Review, Vol. 7, No. 1 (March 1917), pp. 98-103.
[by Charles E. Persons, Washington University.]
A Balanced Industrial System—Discussion [of Professor Carver], The American Economic Review, Vol. 10, No. 1, Supplement, Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-second Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (March 1920), pp. 86-88.
[by Charles E. Persons, Columbus, Ohio.]
Recent Textbooks, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 34, No. 4 (August 1920), pp. 737-756.
[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]
Review of Elementary Economics by Thomas Nixon Carver. The American Economic Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June 1921), pp. 274-277
Review of Principles of Economics by F.M. Taylor. The American Economic Review, Vol. 12, No. 1 (March 1922), pp. 109-111.
[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]
Review of Principles of Economics by Frank W. Taussig, Vol. II (3rd ed. revised). The American Economic Review, Vol. 12, No. 3 (September 1922), pp. 474-475
[by C. E. Persons, Boston University.]
“The Course in Elementary Economics”: Comment, The American Economic Review, Vol. 13, No. 2 (June 1923), pp. 249-251.
[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]
Review of Practical Economics by Henry P. Shearman, The American Economic Review, Vol. 13, No. 3 (September 1923), pp. 471-472.
[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University, College of Business Administration.]
Labor Problems as Treated by American Economists, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 41, No. 3 (May 1927), pp. 487-519.
[by Charles E. Persons, Boston University.]
Unemployment as a Census Problem, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 25, No. 169, [Supplement: Proceedings of the American Statistical Association] (March 1930), pp. 117-120.
[by Charles E. Persons]
Credit Expansion, 1920 to 1929, and its Lessons, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 45, No. 1 (November 1930), pp. 94-130.
[by Charles E. Persons, Washington, D.C.]
Census Reports on Unemployment in April, 1930, The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 154, The Insecurity of Industry (March 1931), pp. 12-16.
[by Charles E. Persons, Ph.D. District Manager, Show Workers’ Protective Union, Haverhill, Massachusetts]
Review of Labor and Other Essays by Henry R. Seager. Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 41, No. 1 (February 1933), pp. 121-123.
[by Charles E. Persons, Economic Research Bureau, Wellesley, Mass.]
Calculation of Relief Expenditures, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 28, No. 181, Supplement: Proceedings of the American Statistical Association (March 1933), pp. 68-74.
[by Charles E. Persons, Bureau of Economic Research, Haverhill, Mass.]
Image Source: Application for U.S. Passport 17 May 1915 to go to England for “scientific study”
In the previous post we met the first African American awarded a Columbia University Ph.D. (Dissertation: “The Negro at Work in New York City”, 1912), George Edmund Haynes (1880-1960). His first academic appointment was at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee where he was Professor of Social Science, a department of one. This post provides an excerpt from the catalogue to this private historically black university that gives us courses with descriptions and text-books (linked here!) for economics, sociology and social work à la Haynes.
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SOCIAL SCIENCE AND SOCIAL WORK
[Fisk University, 1911-13]
In the study of Sociology and Economics and the scientific approach to social problems Fisk is making every effort to keep abreast of the leading developments. Especially is there need for thorough training in scientific methods for study of social problems and the development of the spirit of social service among Negro college youth.
The growing urban concentration of Negroes demands special study and the development of methods of social betterment to meet the problems attendant upon the increasing complexity of their life and conditions in cities, North and South. This urban situation can best be met by college Negroes who have had training in the social sciences and in practical methods of social work. The greatest need of the urban situation is a number of well-trained social and religious workers. It is the chief aim of this department to develop courses, theoretical and practical, in Economics, Sociology and Social Problems that will give a thorough foundation as a preparatory training for social and religious workers.
Also, the increasing concentration of Negroes in urban centers demands that teachers, ministers, doctors, and those entering other professions, should have a thorough equipment to enable them to understand and to meet successfully the problems with which they will have to deal.
The students who desire to make their life calling that of social workers and who show promise of efficiency and success in such work will be given, through fellowships after graduation, opportunities for practical experience and further study in social betterment efforts in New York and other cities under the auspices of the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, which has been organized by a number of public-spirited citizens with the purpose of studying conditions among Negroes in cities, of developing agencies to meet social needs and for the purpose of securing and training Negro social workers. The University is affiliated with the League in developing this work.
Besides, the time has come for the Negro college to become closely articulated with the community in which it is located. The further aim is to bring the University into closer relation with the conditions among colored people in Nashville and to seek the cooperation of the other Negro colleges in developing this much needed phase of education. The following courses are now given:
- ELEMENTARY ECONOMICS: INDUSTRIAL HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION. Junior Year. First and second semesters, 3 hours per week. The aim of this course is to acquaint the student, through a study of concrete facts, with the underlying principles of the economic organization and activity of society, with special reference to American conditions, and with the fundamental economic doctrines as an introductory knowledge of the principles of production, consumption and distribution. The course is conducted by means of readings, class discussions and lectures. Text-books: Coman, “Industrial History of the United States;” collateral reading, and Ely, “Outlines of Economics”.
- ADVANCED ECONOMICS; ECONOMICS AND LABOR PROBLEMS. Senior Year. First and second semesters. 2 hours per week. The work of this course is based upon Course 1. It is conducted partly in the form of a seminar.
In the second half of the course such questions as taxation, labor legislation, child labor, strikes and lockouts, etc., are studied by means of discussions, lectures, readings and assigned investigations. The aim is to develop the student in independent thinking about current economic and labor problems. Text-books: Seager, “Introduction to Economics”[replaced by Nearing and Watson, “Economics” in 1912-13]; Adams and Sumner, “Labor Problems”; collateral reading.
- SOCIOLOGY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS. Senior Year. First and second semesters, 3 hours per week in class-room work. During 12 weeks of the second semester ten hours per week additional field work is required. The first half of this course gives the student an acquaintance with some of the fundamental sociological principles and laws, with some of the chief authorities in sociology, and leads him to a point of view for his thinking about modern social problems. The class-room work is conducted by means of lectures, assigned readings and discussions.
The second half of the course begins with a study of elementary statistics and methods of social investigation. Each student is required to take part in an investigation of some problem like the housing problem, occupations, etc., as they are found among Negroes in Nashville. In addition, he is required to acquaint himself with the literature bearing on the topics of the investigation. In the last part of the course a series of lectures on problems and methods of bettering conditions among Negroes in cities is given by social experts from various cities. The past year the following lectures were given:
Two lectures on “Conservation of Childhood”;
Six lectures on the “Religious Problem among Negroes in Cities”;
Ten lectures on “Principles of Relief and Charity Organization”;
Three lectures on “Special Problems among Negro Women in Cities”;
Five lectures on “Delinquency and Probation”.
[Topics added 1912-13: “Health Problems Among Negroes”; “Educational Problems Among Negroes”; “The State and City in Relation to Social Conditions”; “Rural Conditions Among Negroes”.]
Text-books: Blackmar, “Elements of Sociology” [replaced by Metcalf, “Organic Evolution” in 1912-13]; Carver, “Sociology and Social Progress”; Ward, “Applied Sociology”; collateral reading.
- HISTORY OF THE NEGRO IN AMERICA. Junior Year. First and second semesters. 1 hour per week. A rapid survey is made of the early period of the importation of slaves and of the social and economic conditions which gave rise to slavery, as well as the suppression of the slave trade. A more intensive study is made of the two periods, 1820-1860, and 1860 to the present day. The study thus gives historical perspective for the understanding of present conditions, an appreciation of the honored names of the Negroes of the past, and an estimate of the genuine contributions the Negro people has made in the way of labor force, military strength, musical culture, etc., to American civilization.
There is no suitable text-book to be used for such a historical course, so that in addition to lectures assigned readings are selected from standard histories [added in 1912-13: Brawley, “Short History of the American Negro”], from Du Bois’ “Suppression of the Slave Trade”, Williams’ “History of the Negro in America”[Williams not listed as text-book in 1912-13], Washington’s “Story of the Negro” [Volume I; Volume II], and Hart’s “Slavery and Abolition”. In addition, each student is required to use original sources and report upon some assigned topic, such as biographies of slaves, sale of slaves, underground railroad, etc.
- THE NEGRO PROBLEM. Senior Year. First and second semesters, 1 hour per week. It is the aim of this course to use all available data to acquaint the student with the part the Negro has in the developing life of America and with the economic, political, intellectual, religious and social forces that enter into the condition and relations of the Negro in America. Particular attention is given to urban conditions. Reviews of current books and articles on the Negro Problem are made. The student is thus developed in the power of independent thinking upon the subject. Text-books: Weatherford, “Negro Life in the South”; Du Bois, “Philadelphia Negro”; Haynes, “The Negro at Work in New York City”; collateral reading.
Source: Catalogue Number 1911-1912 (2nd ed.), Fisk University News, Vol. III, No. 3 (May, 1912), pp. 47-50.
Image Source: Tennessee Vacation Website. Road trip to Nashville.
Not all possible specific examination fields were selected in 1918. In particular it is worth noting that Economic Theory and Application and Agricultural Economics were apparently not chosen for examination.
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Previous Division A.B. Exams from Harvard
Specific Exam for Money and Government Finance, 1939
Specific Exam Economic History Since 1750, 1939
Specific Exam for Economic Theory, 1939
Specific Exam for Labor and Social Reform, 1939
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DIVISION EXAMINATION
Beginning with the Class of 1917, students concentrating in the Division of History, Government, and Economics will, at the close of their college course and as a prerequisite to the degree of A.B. and S.B., be required to pass an examination upon the field of their concentration. This examination ·will cover the general attainments of each candidate in the field covered by this Division and also his attainments in a specific field of study. The examination will consist of three parts:—
(a) A general examination, designed to ascertain the comprehensive attainment of the candidate in the subjects of this Division. The paper will be the same for all students, but there will be a large number of alternative questions to allow for differences in preparation.
(b) A special examination, which will test the student’s grasp of his chosen specific field (see list of fields below). The candidate will be expected to show a thorough understanding of the subject of this field; knowledge of the content of courses only will not suffice. The examination will be upon a subject, not upon a group of courses.
(c) An oral examination, supplementary to either or both of the written examinations, but ordinarily bearing primarily upon the candidate’s specific field. The specific field should ordinarily be chosen from the following list, which indicates also the courses bearing most directly upon each field. In special cases other fields or combinations of fields may be accepted by the Division. This field should be selected by the end of the Sophomore year.
Specific field of concentration:
History
- Ancient History
- Mediaeval History
- Modern History to 1789
- Modern History since 1789
- American History
- History of England
- History of France
- History of Germany
- History of Eastern Europe
- History of Spain and Latin America
- Economic History
- Constitutional and Legal History
- History of Religions
Government
- Modern Government—American
- Modern Government—European
- Municipal Government
- Political Theory
- Constitutional Law
- International Law and Diplomacy
Economics
- Economic Theory and its Application
- Economic History
- Economics and Sociology
Applied Economics
- Money and Banking
- Corporate Organization, including Railroads
- Public Finance
- Labor Problems
- Economics of Agriculture
Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1917-18. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XIV, No. 25 (May 18, 1917), pp. 78-81.
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION GENERAL EXAMINATION
April 23, 1918
PART I
The treatment of one of the following questions will be regarded as equivalent to one-third of the examination and should therefore occupy one hour. Write on one question only.
- Write on three of the following: (a) Cavour, (b) Clay, (c) Cortez, (d) Diaz, (e) Fox, (f) Grotius, (g) Humboldt, (h) Marcus Aurelius, (i) Marshall, (j) Oxenstiern, (k) Turgot, (l) Wyclif.
- Does history show that Socialism and Democracy are compatible?
- What is meant by (a) “disarmament,” (b) “making the world safe for democracy,” (c) “freedom of the seas”?
- What were the effects of mechanical improvements upon national development between 1800 and 1850?
- What have been the implications and consequences of Puritanism?
- What have been the political and social by-products of the search for gold?
- Compare the nature and purposes of conservation in war and in peace.
- Trace the development of health service in its national and international aspects. On what grounds should it be supported?
- In how far may the rivalry between ancient Rome and Carthage be likened to that of Germany and England at the present day?
PART II
The treatment of one part of the following question will be regarded as equivalent to one-sixth of the examination and should therefore occupy one half-hour.
- (a) Mark on the map the territories which compose the British Empire today, and state very briefly in your blue book how and when they were acquired.
or (b) Indicate clearly upon the map the location of any two of the following five groups:- The chief wheat raising districts of North America in 1850, 1870, 1890, 1910.
- The primary sources of the world’s supply of copper, iron, wool, cotton, gold.
- The Federal Reserve districts and the location of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks.
- The extent of the railway net of the United States in 1850, 1870, and 1890; and the railroad groups as fixed by the Interstate Commerce Commission.
- The places or regions with which the following are to be primarily associated: (a) the Homestead strike; (b) the Black Death; (c) the Chartist movement; (d) the Bisbee deportations; (e) the Mooney case; (f) the Populist party.
or (c) Show the progress of Democracy by indicating by consecutive numbers upon the map of the world the chronological order of its spread. Explain why the progress has been as indicated.
PART III
Four questions only from the following groups, A, B, and C, are to be answered, of which two and not more than two questions must be from one group. The remaining questions must be taken, one from each of the other groups, or both from one of the other groups.
A
- Trace the history of the relations of the United States to England and France during the presidencies of Washington and of John Adams.
- Discuss the following: “The striking and peculiar characteristic of American society is that it is not so much a democracy as a huge commercial company for the discovery, cultivation, and capitalization of its enormous territory.”
- Why did the Greeks defeat the Persians, and the Romans the Greeks?
- What issues were at stake in the struggle between the mediaeval Emperors and Popes?
- Give a brief account of the enfranchisement of the lower classes of the rural population in the principal countries of Western Europe.
- What do you understand by the phrase “The enlightened despotism of the eighteenth century”? What names do you connect with it?
B
- Give a brief history of the public domain of the Federal Government.
- Describe the tariff controversy in Germany before the War. Has the War thrown any light upon any of the arguments employed?
- Write a brief analysis of the economic policies of the Federalists.
- Discuss: “The nineteenth century was the golden age of the capitalist.”
- Sketch the economic and political background of two of the following: (a) the defeat in 1911 of reciprocity with Canada; (b) the creation of the Zollverein; (c) the refusal of a renewal of charter to the First Bank of the United States; (d) the passage of the Clay Compromise Tariff; (e) the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
- Compare the advantages and disadvantages of “direct” and legislative action in effecting economic reforms.
C
- What political and economic theories have been particularly tested by events since July 1914, and with what results?
- Is there any reason why a presidential form of government should be preferable in the United States and a parliamentary or cabinet form in Great Britain?
- Give a brief sketch of three of the following, with name of author and date: (1) De Monarchia; (2) On Liberty; (3) The Republic; (4) Looking Backward; (5) De Civitate Dei; (6) Oceana; (7) The City of the Sun; (8) De Jure Belli ac Pacis; (9) Leviathan; (10) Vindiciae contra Tyrannos; (11) The Wealth of Nations.
- Compare the public services of two of the following: (a) Louis Blanc; (b) Burke; (c) Cobden; (d) Hamilton; (e) Jackson; (f) Metternich.
- Show in what respect and for what reasons any state has become a colonial power.
- What should be the method of obtaining peace at the end of the present war according to the principles or theories of one of the following: (a) Aristotle; (b) Cicero; (c) Franklin; (d) Gustavus Adolphus; (e) Lincoln; (f) Machiavelli; (h) Thomas Aquinas.
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Modern European History
April 26, 1918
Answer six questions in all, taking at least one from each of the three groups into which the paper is divided.
I
- What were the causes of the making and rupture of the Peace of Amiens? Is a similar temporary peace conceivable in the present war?
- What were the chief characteristics of the fifteen years immediately succeeding the Peace of Vienna? Can it be fairly argued that the fifteen years following the close of the present war will resemble them?
- Note the chief stages in the actual formation of a United Italy. How far did Napoleon III deliberately foster the growth of Italian unity?
- Compare the course of events during the three weeks previous to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 with those of the month of July 1914. What do you believe to have been the real object of German diplomacy in each case?
- Trace the careers of any two of the following: Blaine, Déak, Gambetta, Mazzini, Palmerston, Pinckney, Sherman, Stein.
II
- Who were the most prominent leaders in the States General of 1789, and what were their platforms and policies?
- Estimate the attitudes of the chief European powers and of the United States towards the question of Latin American independence.
- Give a brief account of the principal events in the history of England’s dealings with Ireland since the time of the French Revolution.
- What light is thrown by the history of the revolutionary movements of 1848 upon the relations of the fundamental principles of liberalism and nationality?
- What political principles worked at issue in the Carlist Wars?
III
- Trace the conflict between Napoleon and Pius VII.
- Estimate the influence of the universities upon the development of Germany since the period of the French Revolution.
- What light is thrown by the history of England and of the United States on the (a) possibility, (b) desirability of taking the tariff out of politics.
- Compare the nature, extent, and causes of social stratification in England, Germany, in the United States.
- In how far does the past history of Russia furnish an explanation of her condition today?
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
American History
April 26, 1918
Answer six questions in all, taking at least one from each of the three groups into which the paper is divided.
I
- Characterize the following colonies at the dates given: Rhode Island, 1640; Delaware, 1650; Louisiana, 1801; Florida, 1815.
- What connection may be traced between the French and Indian War and the American Revolution?
- Contrast the careers of Bolivar and San Martin.
- Describe the military and naval struggles for the control of the Mississippi during the Civil War.
- Give a brief account of the relations of Germany and United States from 1860 to 1914.
II
- Compare the policies of England, France, and Spain relative to the treatment of the American Indians.
- What precedents have there been for a federation of states of Latin America? What are the prospects of such a federation today?
- Have the South a constitutional right to secede? How is the answer to this question to be determined?
- Does the Monroe doctrine applied to Asiatic as well as to European powers today? Give reasons for your answer.
- Comment on, discuss, or explain, as the case may require, four of the following: Dred Scott Decision, Ku-Klux Klan, Gerrymandering, New England Confederation, Tordesillas Line.
III
- “American independence was won in the dockyards of Ferrol and Toulon, and not on the battlefields of America.” Explain.
- Does the history of the United States show that is (a) desirable or (b) possible to take the tariff out of politics?
- Discuss the statement, “The West is preeminently a region of ideals.”
- Describe the platforms of the presidential candidates in the election of 1896.
- Are the initiative and referendum in accord with the American theory of representative government?
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Economic History
April 26, 1918
Answer six questions.
A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- Employing historical illustrations, consider the advantages and disadvantages of the principal forms of agricultural land tenure.
- Describe and account for the major movements of the price level during the nineteenth century.
- Discuss the future of our meat supply.
- Draft a set of rules for the graphic presentation of historical series.
B
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.
- Briefly compare the Industrial Revolution in England and Continental Europe.
- What was the effect of the Napoleonic Wars upon American economic development?
- Outline the history of the American Silver Dollar.
- Write a brief history of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act.
- Trace the course of the relations between organized labor and the railways of the United States.
- Sketch the history of one of the following industries in United States (a) tin-plate; (b) fur-seal; (c) beet-sugar; (d) ship-building.
- Give a brief account of the economic relations of the United States and South America.
C
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- In what particulars and for what reasons has labor legislation been backward in the United States?
- In what respects, if at all, is the present railway situation in the United States a natural development from conditions prevailing before the War?
- What conclusions are to be drawn from Germany’s experience with social insurance?
- What have been the chief problems of British government finance during the past generation? Wherein will the problems after the War different?
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Economics and Sociology
April 26, 1918
Answer six questions.
A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- “The economic forces have no tendency whatever to direct my effort to the most widely important end or the supply of the most urgent individual need.” Discuss.
- “Free competition between labor and capital will result in just wages to labor.” Do you agree? What are “just wages”?
- Compare past and present theories of the justification of interest.
- Analyze the concept of “productivity” in economics.
B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- What statistical studies have been made of standards of living in the United States? What conclusions may be drawn from these studies?
- What are the chief causes of infant mortality? What are the most effective preventatives of infant deaths?
- Outline the history of poor relief in England. What light does English experience throw up on the relative advantages of “outdoor” and “indoor” relief?
- Give a critical account of recent developments in prison reform.
C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.
- In a few words indicate the most important contributions to sociology by three of the following: (a) Comte; (b) Darwin; (c) Galton; Space (d) Giddings; (e) Kidd; (f) Nietzsche; (g) Spencer; (h) Tarde; (i) Ward.
- What is social progress?
- Contrast North and Latin American views on the subject of race intermixture.
- What influence has the institution of private property upon prevailing tastes and social ideals?
- “A nation need not be bound by the scruples that most restrain an individual.” Do you agree? Why or why not?
- What are the principal forms of conflict? Upon what grounds are some forms to be preferred to others?
- “A strong revival of the more devout forms of religion has followed every great war.” Discuss
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Labor Problems
April 26, 1918
Answer six questions.
A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- “Free competition between labor and capital will result in just wages to labor.” Do you agree? What are “Just wages”?
- Who ultimately bears the burden of a system of industrial insurance?
- What are the principal difficulties encountered in the collection of wage statistics?
- What are the chief sources of unemployment statistics in the United States?
B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- Outline the evolution of the English agricultural laborer.
- Trace the history of minimum-wage legislation.
- Compare the experiences of the laboring classes in England and Germany during the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
- Write a brief history of the Industrial Workers of the World.
C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.
- Discuss “non-competing groups” with reference to (a) sorts of work done; (b) age maximum earnings; (c) approximate scale of earnings in dollars per annum; (d) age of marriage; (e) birth-rates; (f) possibility of transition from group to group.
- What are the functions of the employment manager?
- What are the characteristics, evils and best treatment of the sweating system?
- Discuss the use of the injunction in labor disputes.
- Explain and criticize the work of the British labor exchanges. Are there similar organizations in the United States?
- Give a critical analysis of the Adamson Law.
- Describe the present influence of organized labor in English political and economic life.
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Public Finance
April 26, 1918
Answer six questions.
A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- Under what conditions is a tax on rented buildings borne by (a) the tenant, (b) the owner, (c) neither?
- What accounting problems are involved in budgets for our state governments?
- Describe the scope, and estimate the importance, of the work of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research.
- What are the chief sources of taxation statistics in the United States?
B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- Sketch the history of the United States Post Office.
- Outline the history of state income taxes in the United States.
- Give a brief account of the use of fiscal monopolies by European governments.
- Compare the development of English and German increment taxes.
C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.
- If you were devising a balanced system of taxation for this country, what taxes would you assign to (a) the federal government, (b) the state governments, (c) the local governments? Give your reasons.
- To what extent would national prohibition necessitate changes in existing arrangements for government revenue? What changes would appear to be most desirable?
- What special problems are involved in the taxation of forest lands?
- Critically compare the taxation of “excess profits” by England, France, and the United States.
- “The practice of exempting government bonds from taxation is a pernicious American custom.” Discuss.
- What is the case for and against the “service-at-cost” plan of public utility regulation?
- From the point of view of public finance, what are the advantages and disadvantages of centralization of administrative powers?
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Corporate Organization, including Railroads
April 26, 1918
Answer six questions.
A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- What are the social gains and losses of speculation on the stock exchanges?
- Discuss comparatively the public regulation of railway accounts in England, France, and the United States.
- The following data have been given for the freight service of a group of American railroads during December the past two years:
| 1916 | 1917 | |
| Tons per loaded car mile | 26.5 | 29.2 |
| Miles per car day | 25.4 | 21.3 |
| Per cent loaded car miles | 69.8 | 70.9 |
How did the freight car performance of December, 1917, compare with that of December, 1916? What proportion of the changes is to be assigned to each factor?
- What difficulties are involved in a satisfactory definition of the following objects of statistical inquiry (a) manufacturers; (b) establishment; (c) capital; (d) employee; (e) wages?
B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- Give an account of an important corporate reorganization.
- Describe the evolution of the German kartell.
- Outline a history of the Interstate Commerce Commission.
- Briefly characterize the business careers of two of the following: (a) Andrew Carnegie; (b) E. H. Harriman; (c) James J. Hill; (d) Robert Owen; (e) Werner Siemens; (f) James Watt.
C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.
- What problems are involved in public regulation of security issues?
- Discuss the opening price association with reference to (a) its nature; (b) the reasons for its appearance; (c) its legal status; (d) its probable future.
- Discuss the consequences of the dissolution of the Standard Oil Company.
- Describe this criticize the Federal corporation tax.
- Analyze critically the present railroad situation in the United States.
- Consider the case for and against the “service-at-cost” plan for regulating local transit systems.
- What light is German experience throw up on the advantages and disadvantages of the government ownership of railways?
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Money and Banking
April 26, 1918
Answer six questions.
A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- What is the relation of (a) investment banking, (b) commercial banking, to capitalistic production?
- Draft an income or profit and loss statement suitable for a large commercial bank.
- Discuss the equation of exchange with respect to (a) its formulation; (b) the possibility of its statistical verification; (c) its bearing upon the theory of prices.
- Describe a business barometer for banks with reference to (a) the purposes it may serve; (b) the method of construction; (c) the best available statistical method.
B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- At what times, and in what forms, has the “money question” been a political issue in the United States? Why is it no longer an issue?
- What factors contributed to the adoption by Germany of the single gold standard?
- Contrast, in outline, the history of banking in Canada and the United States.
- Give an account of the panic of 1890.
C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.
- “The maintenance of a monetary standard is a banking and not a government function.” Discuss.
- What was the trade dollar? What monetary principles were illustrated by experience with this coin?
- “The idle hoard of silver dollars at Washington is a serious defect in our monetary system.” Discuss. What obstacles stand in the way of any change in this feature of the system?
- Give a critical analysis of the working of the Federal Reserve System.
- Compare the conduct of banking in England and Germany since the beginning of the War.
- Discuss the financial problems involved in the floatation of an immense government war loan.
- Briefly describe and explain the foreign exchanges since July, 1914, in two of the following countries: (a) England; (b) Germany; (c) Italy; (d) Russia; (e) Switzerland; (f) United States.
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
American Government
April 26, 1918
Answer six questions of which three questions must be from one group, two must be from another group, and one must be from the remaining group.
A
- What constitutional principles of the United States have exercised the most potent influence in the development of Latin America?
- Has the strain upon the Government of the United States since 1914 shown the need of amendment of the Constitution?
- “The great and radical vice in the construction of the existing Confederation (the United States of America, 1781) is in the principle of Legislation for States or Governments, in their corporate or collective capacities, and as contradistinguished from the Individuals of which they consist.” Discuss this statement with reference to its general validity and its applicability to problems of international reconstruction.
- Give three examples of “political questions.” What is the attitude of the courts toward such questions which have been brought before the courts?
- Compare the theories of the American constitutional system held by two of the following: Calhoun, Webster, Marshall, the Supreme Court in 1868.
- What has been the character of recent constitution making and has it brought about the desired results?
B
- Are the initiative and referendum in accord with the American theory of representative government?
- “Foreign politics demand scarcely any of those qualities which a democracy possesses; and they require, on the contrary, the perfect use of almost all those faculties in which it is deficient.” Discuss the above.
- Why has the United States acquired non-contiguous territory and what has been the effect of this acquisition upon subsequent national policy?
- Show the effects of the ideals of two Americans upon the development of the United States.
- Should the Government in a democratic country be prohibited by the Constitution from concluding treaties which would require it to go to war in certain contingencies?
- What is the responsible government? To what extent does it exist in Germany, the United States, France?
C
- What organ has the authority to interpret and to alter the Constitution in the following countries: the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France?
- Describe three methods by which state constitutions in the United States have been amended. In case a state constitution contains no provision for its own amendment and a majority of the citizens desire a change, what should be done?
- How far should the Government of the United States engage in manufacturing in time of war?
- What is the best method of selecting judges? Discuss with illustrations from the practice of the United States.
- How should the relations among the states of the American hemisphere be made more satisfactory?
- Congress (1) appropriates $500,000 for a national laboratory of chemical research, (2) passes a law regulating the hours of railway employees, (3) provides for the punishment of crimes committed on United States vessels at sea. What, if any, constitutional authority is there for these acts?
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
International Law
April 26, 1918
Answer six questions.
A
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- Discuss and illustrate the statement of Grotius: “To pretend to have a right to injure another, merely out of a possibility that he injure us, is repugnant to all the justice in the world.”
- Explain the origin and development of exterritoriality.
- Is there anything in the literature and experience of ancient Greece of practical value for the statement who will take part in settling the present world crisis? Why?
- Write upon three of the following: (a) Bynkershoek, (b) Gentilis, (c) Pufendorf, (d) Selden, (e) Vattel, (f) Wicquefort.
- What periods are significant for the development of international relations, and explain the most important factors in each period.
B
Take from this group at least one and not more than two.
- Would it be possible to treat the foreign policies declared by Washington, Monroe, Polk, and Wilson as the development of permanent principles?
- In a protest to Sweden of August 30, 1916, the British government said: “The decree of the 14th July, 1916, reserving the route arranged through the mine-field established in the Kogrund passage to Swedish merchant vessels only, does not seem to be compatible with the provisions of Article 9 of the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation of the 18th March, 1826, which secure to British merchant vessels in Swedish waters the treatment accorded to the most favored nation, in this case Italy, whose merchant vessels are permitted, in virtue of Article 3 of the Treaty of the 14th June, 1862, to participate in navigation of the coasts and to trade between Swedish ports on the same footing as Swedish vessels.”
What defense for Sweden? - To what extent and why should the integrity of small states be maintained?
- Granting that all Hague Conventions are in force, would a case such as that of the Alabama be similarly decided at the present time?
- What is the importance of the blockade as a method of warfare?
C
Take from this group at least two and not more than four.
- How far does territorial propinquity justify one state in assuming authority over another? Illustrate by examples.
- “If a belligerent cannot retaliate against an enemy without injuring the lives of neutrals, as well as their property, humanity, as well as justice and a due regard for the dignity of neutral powers should dictate that the practice be discontinued.” Should this statement be qualified?
- Give a sketch of the questions involving international law arising from the relations of the United States and Mexico, 1912 to 1916.
- A was born in New York City of German parentage in 1875. He visited Germany in 1885 and returned in 1886. In 1897, on board an English steamer bound from New York to Russia, he entered the port of Hamburg but did not leave the steamer. The German police came on board and declined to allow the steamer to leave port until Mr. A should surrender, claiming Mr. A had evaded military service.
Mr. A appeals to the ambassador of the United States. The master of the British vessel appeals to the British ambassador. - What regulations should be made for the conduct of submarine warfare?
- States X and Y are at war. Neutral state M issues neutrality regulations forbidding all belligerent armed merchant vessels from entering its ports.
When the war has progressed for two years.- State X, being unable to import munitions of war, since its commerce has been driven from the seas, protests to state M that observance of neutrality requires that M forbid all export of munitions of war to belligerents.
- State Y, finding it expedient to arm its merchant vessels for defense against unwarded attacks by enemy submarines, protests that armed merchant vessels should not be excluded from the ports of M.
What answer should M make to these protests?
- The case of the Three Friends.
- The treaty of 1871 between the United States and Italy guarantees to the citizens of either nation in the territory of the other “the most constant protection and security for their persons and property.” Property of Italian citizens is destroyed in a riot in New Orleans due to negligence on the part of the local policy authorities. What remedies may the sufferers pursue?
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DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS
DIVISION SPECIAL EXAMINATION
Municipal Government
April 26, 1918
Answer six questions of which three questions must be from one group, two must be from another group, and one must be from the remaining group.
A
- How far have American cities adopted the budget plan and has it proven satisfactory?
- Describe the general characteristics of the cities of the twelfth centuries.
- Compare city government in France and Prussia as to (a) organization, (b) autonomy, (c) administrative efficiency, (d) popular control.
- Compare the principles underlying the different systems of municipal suffrage.
- Explain the following terms (a) borough, (b) prefect, (c) rates, (d) syndikus, (e) Local Government Board, (f) Bürgermeister.
- In what countries and to what extent may city officers be appointed or selected from non-residents?
B
- Where, how far, and with what success has the principle of the owner’s personal liability for fires been tried?
- To what extent should the following be controlled by the city: (a) education, (b) poor relief, (c) liquor licenses?
- Should a municipality own or control the railway terminals within its limits?
- (a) What is the most satisfactory system of municipal taxation and why?
(b) Should a city levy an income tax? - Should the system of initiative and referendum prevail in cities under commission form of government?
- Should the police force in cities of over 100,000 population be under the control of the city, state, or national government?
C
- Discuss the following propositions:
- To establish a municipal piggery for disposing of the city garbage.
- To establish a free ferry between parts of a municipality on opposite sides of a bay.
- Illustrate by reference to municipalities the methods of control and regulation of lighting.
- How and why should sanitation and health regulations differ in rural and urban communities?
- What has been the attitude of the courts in regard to protection of the claims of private individuals under municipal zoning ordinances?
- What are the most satisfactory building regulations, and in what cities are they in effect?
- What is the case for and against the “service-at-cost” plan for public utilities?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Divisional and general examinations, 1915-1975. Box 6. Bound volume [from the private library of Arthur H. Cole]: Divisional Examinations, 1916-1927. Division of History, Government and Economics for the Degree of A.B. Division Examinations, 1917-18.
Image Source: Widener Library, 1915. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. Digital ID: cph 3c14486
The last name “Sydenstricker” is certainly not all-too-common which is probably a reason that it lodged in my memory after I transcribed the 25th anniversary of the University of Chicago’s Department of Political Economy. Elgar Sydenstricker was included there in the list of “Fellows of Political Economy”. Nonetheless, I had no record of him ever completing a Ph.D. there (he never did).
With the coming of the Covid-19 pandemic, I thought it might be worth a look to see which economists (if any), were involved in the scientific analysis of the influenza epidemic of 1918-19. The name “Edgar Sydenstricker” was everywhere. And yes, it was the University of Chicago ABD, Edgar Sydenstricker.
I realized there was a significant gap in my rather exclusive focus on Ph.D. academic economists. Someone like Edgar Sydenstricker had an academic economist’s training, but he was not part of the self-perpetuating caste of economics professors.
With the influenza epidemic of 1918-19, Edgar Sydenstricker became a leading statistician in the efforts to advance epidemiology. Today’s post gives information about his career and publications.
Fun fact: his younger sister was Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1938 Nobel Prize in literature).
______________________
Best single source about Edgar Sydenstricker
(includes a bibliography)
Kasius R.V., ed. The challenge of facts. Selected public health papers of Edgar Sydenstricker. New York: Prodist, for the Milbank Memorial Fund, 1974.
Wiehl, D.G. Edgar Sydenstricker: a memoir. pp. 1-17.
______________________
Edgar Sydenstricker’s Time-line.
(b. July 15, 1881 in Shanghai; d. Mar 19, 1936 in New York City).
Parents were missionaries from West Virginia, Rev. Dr. Absalom and Caroline Stulting Sydenstricker.
1896. Edgar Sydenstricker came to United States
1900. A.B., Fredericksburg College (Virginia).
1902. M.A. (honors) in sociology and economics at Washington and Lee.
1902-1905. High school principal in Onancock, Virginia
1905. Editor of the Daily Advance in Lynchburg, Virginia
1907-08. Graduate study at University of Chicago [fellow in political economy]
1908-1915. United States Immigration Commission and Commission on Industrial Relations. Extensive surveys of wages, working conditions, and scales of living of industrial workers, especially in industries with large numbers of foreign born.
1915. Joins United States Public Health Service as first statistician ever. He was hired to assist Dr. B. S. Warren [studied health and economic status of garment workers in New York City, sickness insurance in Europe].
1916-20. Sydenstricker and Joseph Goldberger studied causes of pellagra in the American South.
1917. Elected member of the American Statistical Association.
1918. With Wade Hampton Frost research on statistics of influenza [papers by Sydenstricker, Wade Hampton Frost, Selwyn D. Collins, Rolo H. Britten and others at the Public Health Service giving “a most comprehensive history of influenza from 1910 to 1930”].
1920. Appointed head of Office of Statistical Investigations.
1921. Begins Hagerstown Morbidity Survey [which later became the U.S. National Health ].
1922. Becomes fellow of the American Statistical Association
1923. League of Nations invited him to establish the Epidemiological Service of the Health Organization.
1925. Consultant to Milbank Memorial Fund
1928. Director of research of Milbank Memorial Fund.
1931-34. Represented ASA at Social Science Research Council.
1935. Scientific director of Milbank Memorial Fund
1936, March 19. Died of cerebral hemorrhage.
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The important influenza studies of the Public Health Reports, U.S.
United States Treasury Department and the Public Health Service. Influenza Morbidity and Mortality Studies, 1910-1935. Reprints from the Public Health Reports. Washington: USGPO, 1938.
Influenza-pneumonia mortality in a group of about 95 cities in the United States, 1920-29. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1355, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 45, No. 8 (February 21, 1930), pp. 361-406.
Influenza and pneumonia mortality in a group of about 95 cities in the United States during four minor epidemics, 1930-35, with a summary for 1920-35. By Selwyn D. Collins and Mary Gover. Reprint 1720, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 50, No. 48 (November 29, 1935), pp. 1668-1689.
Mortality from influenza and pneumonia in 50 large cities of the United States, 1910-29. By Selwyn D. Collins, W. H. Frost, Mary Gover, and Edgar Sydenstricker. Reprint 1415, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 45, No. 39 (September 26, 1930), pp. 2277-2328.
Excess mortality from causes other than influenza and pneumonia during influenza epidemics. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1553, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 47, No. 46 (November 11, 1932), pp. 2159-2179.
The incidence of influenza among persons of different economic status during the epidemic of 1918. By Edgar Sydenstricker. Reprint 1444, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 46, No. 4 (January 23, 1931), pp. 154-170.
Age and sex incidence of influenza and pneumonia morbidity and mortality in the epidemic of 1928-29 with comparative data for the epidemic of 1918-19. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1500, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 46, No. 33 (August 14, 1931), pp. 1909-1937.
The influenza epidemic of 1928-29 in 14 surveyed localities in the United States. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1606, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 49, No. 1 (January 5, 1934), pp. 1-42.
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Other Sydenstricker articles on public health
Edgar Sydenstricker. Existing Agencies for Health Insurance in the United States,” in U.S. Department of Labor, Proceedings of the Conference on Social Insurance, 1916 (Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1917), pp. 430-75.
Edgar Sydenstricker. Preliminary Statistics of the Influenza Epidemic, in Epidemic Influenza. Prevalence in the United States. Public Health Reports. Vol. 33, No. 52 ( December 27, 1918), pp. 2305-2321.
Sydenstricker, E., King W.I.A. A method for classifying families according to incomes in studies of disease prevalence. Public Health Reports 1920; 35: 2828-2846.
Sydenstricker, E. Health and Environment. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1933.
Sydenstricker, E. Health and the Depression. Milbank Memorial Fund Q 1934; 12:273-280.
Sydenstricker, E. The incidence of illness in a general population group: General results of a morbidity study from December 1, 1921 through March 31, 1924 in Hagerstown, Md. Public Health Reports. 1925; 40: 279-291.
Milbank Memorial Fund. Program of the Division of Research 1928-1940. (1941)
Image Source: Portrait of Edgar Sydenstricker in Washington and Lee University Yearbook The Calyx, 1902.
Examinations from Edward Cummings’ Harvard courses on socialism and communism 1893-1900 have been transcribed and posted earlier. Biographical information about him from 1899 has also been posted.
Thanks to Cummings’ examination style that used exact citations from the literature for students to explain or comment upon, I was able to reverse-engineer some of the key readings that were either assigned or discussed in class. Links to those readings follow the individual examination questions.
___________________
Enrollment
[Economics] 3. Mr. Cummings.—The Principles of Sociology. —Development of the Modern State, and of its Social Functions. 3 hours.
Total 22: 5 Graduates, 9 Seniors, 4 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 3 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1892-1893, p. 67.
ECONOMICS 3
Mid-Year Examination (1893)
Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit two.
- “We have just seen that a one-sided application of the conception that society is of organic growth leads to difficulties, as well as the conception of artificial making. These we can only escape by recognizing a truth which includes them both.”
What are these difficulties, and what is this truth?
[David George Ritschie. The Principles of State Interference. Chapter 1, Herbert Spencer’s Individualism and his Conception of Society (London, 1891), pp. 49-50] - “If societies have evolved, and if that mutual dependence of parts which coöperation implies, has been gradually reached, then the implication is that however unlike their developed structures may become, there is a rudimentary structure with which they all set out.”
What evidence do you find of such a structure?
[Herbert Spencer. The Principles of Sociology, Vol. 2, Chapter 5, Political Forms and Forces (New York, 1883), p. 311] - According to Aristotle, “Man is by nature a political animal.” According to Thomas Aquinas, “homo est animal sociale et politicum.” How far is this insertion of “sociale” alongside of “politicum” significant of the different way in which the State presented itself to the mind of the Greek and to the mind of the mediaeval philosopher?
[David George Ritschie. The Principles of State Interference. Appendix Note A: The Distinction between Society and the State (London, 1891), p. 157] - “The theory of the social contract belongs in an especial manner to the political philosophers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But it did not originate with them. It had its roots in the popular consciousness of mediaeval society. As a philosophical theory, it had already been anticipated by the Greek Sophists.”
Indicate briefly some of the important changes which the doctrine underwent.
[David George Ritschie. Contributions to the History of the Social Contract Theory, Vol. 6 Political Science Quarterly (1891), p. 656.] - “In primitive societies the person does not exist, or exists only potentially, or, as we might say, in spe. The person is the product of the State.” Explain. What is the theoretical and historical justification of this doctrine, as against the contention that the individual loses what the State gains?
[David George Ritschie. The Principles of State Interference. Chapter 1, Herbert Spencer’s Individualism and his Conception of Society (London, 1891), p. 29.] - Discuss the relative preponderance of free and of un-free elements at different stages of social development.
- It has been remarked by Spencer that those domestic relations which are ethically the highest, are also biologically and sociologically the highest. Discuss the historical evidence on this point. What is the test of this ethical superiority?
[Herbert Spencer. The Principles of Sociology, Vol. 1, Part III, Chapter 2, The Diverse Interests of the Species, of the Parents, and of the Offspring (New York, 1883), p. 630] - To what extent is there ground for saying that the influence of militant and of industrial organization is traceable in the status of women and the duration of marriage in the United States and in other countries?
[Herbert Spencer. The Principles of Sociology, Vol. 1, Part III, Chapter 10, The Status of Women (New York, 1883), p. 765] - “We find ourselves applying the ideal of a Greek city to our vast and heterogeneous modern political structures—a tremendous extension of the difficulties. If we are not more successful than the Greeks, the task is greater and the aim higher.” Explain.
[Frederick Pollock. The History of the Science of Politics, (1883), p. 13. Originally published serially in the Fortnightly Review (August 1882—January 1883).] - “The unit of an ancient society was the family, of a modern society the individual.”
Describe the tendencies which have brought about this change.
[David George Ritschie. The Principles of State Interference. Chapter 1, Herbert Spencer’s Individualism and his Conception of Society (London, 1891), p. 30.] - “The ultimate responsibility of the ultimate political sovereign is a question for the philosophy of history; in other words, one may say it is a matter of ‘natural selection.’” Explain.
[David George Ritschie. The Principles of State Interference. Appendix Note B: The Conception of Sovereignty (London, 1891), pp. 165-166.] - What is your criterion of social progress? Why?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Mid-year examinations 1852-1943. Box 3, Vol. Examination Papers, Mid-Year 1892-93.
ECONOMICS 3
Final Examination (June, 1893)
[Answer the questions in the order in which they stand. Omit one.]
- “The different forms of the State are specifically divided, as Aristotle recognized, by the different conceptions of the distinction between government and subjects, especially by the quality (not the quantity) of the ruler.” Explain. Indicate briefly the relation of the different forms of the State to one another.
[Johann Caspar Bluntschli. The Theory of the State (translation from 6th German edition), Chapter IV, The Principle of the Four Fundamental Forms of the State (Oxford, 1885), p. 318.] - “If there is any one principle which is clearly grasped in the present day, it is that political power is a public duty as well as a public right, that it belongs to the political existence of life of the whole nation, and that it can never be regarded as the property or personal right of an individual.” How far did this principle secure recognition in Greek, in Roman, and in mediaeval times?
[Johann Caspar Bluntschli. The Theory of the State (translation from 6th German edition), Chapter XIV, Constitutional Monarchy (Oxford, 1885), p. 398.] - “The past seems to prove that kings and aristocracies make States, and that left to themselves, the people unmake them.” State carefully your reasons for agreeing or disagreeing with the political philosophy here involved.
[Paul Leroy-Beaulieu. The Modern State in Relation to Society and the Individual. (London, 1891), p. 100.] - “This one of the curious phases of the railway problem in Europe, which has a tendency to show how multiform and various are the influences at work to modify and change the conditions of the railway problem, and how little can be gathered from mere government documents and laws to shed light upon this most interesting and intricate of all modern industrial questions.” What light does Italian, French and Austrian experience with railroads throw on the general question of State control?
[Simon Sterne. Some Curious Phases of the Railway Question in Europe. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 1, No. 4 (July, 1887), p. 468.] - “Expediency and the results of experience must determine how far to go. They seem to justify public ownership of gas works, water works and electric lights. The same would doubtless be true of the telegraph and telephone.” Discuss the evidence.
[From conclusion of Edward W. Bemis. Municipal Gas Works in The Chautauquan, Vol. 16, no. 1 (October 1892), pp. 15-18. Cf. his Municipal Ownership of Gas in the United States published by the American Economic Association, Publications Vol. VI, Nos. 4 and 5 (July and September, 1891).] - “We will first concentrate our attention on the economic kernel of socialism, setting aside for the moment the transitory aspect it bears in the hands of agitators, its provisional passwords, and the phenomena and tendencies in religion by which it is accompanied.” State and criticize this “economic kernel.”
[Albert Schäffle. The Quintessence of Socialism, 3rd edition (London, 1891), p. 3] - “The philanthropic and experimental forms of socialism, which played a conspicuous role before 1848, perished then in the wreck of the Revolution, and have never risen to life again.” What were the characteristics of these earlier forms; and what was their relation to the movements which preceded them and followed them?
[John Rae. Contemporary Socialism. Chapter 1, Introductory (London, 1884), p. 2] - How are the socialistic teachings of Lasalle and Marx related to the economic doctrines of Smith and Ricardo?
[John Rae. Contemporary Socialism. Chapter 2, Ferdinand Lassalle; Chapter 3, Karl Marx (London, 1884)] - What ground do you find for or against the contention that “socialism is the economic complement of democracy”?
[E.g., Thomas Kirkup. An Inquiry into Socialism (London, 1887), p. 184; or his A History of Socialism, (London: 1892) p. 8.] - “Not only material security, but the perfection of human social life is what we aim at in that organized co-operation of many men’s lives and works which is called the State…..But where does protection leave off and interference begin?”
[Frederick Pollock. The History of the Science of Politics, (1883), p. 49. Originally published serially in the Fortnightly Review (August 1882—January 1883).]
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 4, Vol. Examination Papers, 1893-95. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, History, Government and Law, Economics, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1893), pp. 36-37.
Image Source: University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol II (1899), pp. 155-156.
This post has two functions: it adds to the syllabi for sociology taught at Harvard previously transcribed:
Economics 3. Thomas Nixon Carver and William Z. Ripley, 1902
Economics 8. Thomas Nixon Carver, 1917-18.
It also serves as a meet an economics Ph.D. alumnus from Harvard post. The 1927-28 offering of Economics 8 was co-taught by Professor Carver and his sociology graduate student, Carl Smith Joslyn.
Carl Smith Joslyn (b. 20 Aug 1899 in Springfield, MA.; d. 23 Dec 1986 in Worthington, MA) went to Central High School in Springfield. At Harvard he received the Class of 1844 Scholarship (1919-1920). He went on to chair the sociology department at the University of Maryland, during which time he hired young C. Wright Mills.
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Carl Smith Joslyn
Harvard Ph.D. in Economics, 1930.
Carl Smith Joslyn, A.B. 1920
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Sociology. Thesis, “The Social Origins of American Business Leaders.” Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, and Tutor in Sociology and Social Ethics, Harvard University.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1929-30. Page 120.
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Course Enrollment
[Economics] 8a1hf. Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver and Mr. [Carl Smith] Joslyn.— Principles of Sociology
Total 79: 7 Graduates, 23 Seniors, 36 Juniors, 2 Sophomores 11 Other.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1927-28. Page 74.
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8. Principles of Sociology
[This is for 1928-29, virtually identical to 1924-25 description]
Mon., Wed., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Fri., at 12.
Professor Carver and Mr. Joslyn
A study of human adaptation. Progress defined as adaptation. In what does progress consist, how may it be verified, what are the factors that promote or hinder it? The biological as well as the psychological, moral, economic, and political factors are studied. Attention is given to problems of moral adjustment and readjustment, of active control of the environmental factors, of economizing human energy and of social control.
Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1928-29. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XXV, No. 29 (May 26, 1928), p. 68.
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Economics 8
I.
Introduction
- The Nature, Scope, and Method of Sociology
A study of purposeful human association.
Relation to Linguistics, Psychology, Jurisprudence, Ethics, Politics, Economics.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 1-14; 65-79.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, ch. 1.
- The Evolutionary Concept in Sociology:
(1) Continuity; (2) Change; (3) Differentiation; (4) Fixation.
Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Pt. I, ch. 1. Pt. II, chs. 1-4.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 29-40; 123-149.
- The Mechanism of Organic and Super-organic (Social) Evolution Compared.
(1) Variation. (a) spontaneous or artificially produced; (b) minute or extreme.
(2) Selection. (a) Natural. (b) social.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 55-79.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 276-299.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 42-56.
Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 1-27.
- The Origin and Development of Human Society.
Survival value of (a) associated effort; (b) social inclination.
Giddings, Principles of Sociology, pp. 199-229; 256-323.
Dealey and Ward, Textbook of Sociology, Ch. I.
- The Nature and Conditions of Social Progress. Progress considered as the adaptation of the organism, man, to his environment: the method of adaptation being (a) Passive, or (b) active; the character of the environment being (a) physical, or (b) social.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 19-41; 73-103.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 88-120.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, Preface and Introduction.
- The Limits of Social Progress: A mutual fitting together or balancebetween the passive and the active forms of adaptation.
(1) on the physical side, (a) such modifications as will enable it to live healthfully in the modified physical environment, (b) such improvements of the physical environment as will so fit the modified human organism as to enable it to live healthfully.
(2) on the moral side; (a) such modifications of the intellectual and moral nature of man as will cause individuals to react favorably to such stimuli as can be brought to bear upon them by an improved system of social control: (b) such improvements in the system of social control as will secure favorable responses from the improved intellectual and moral nature of man.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 221-304.
II.
A. Passive physical adaptation.
- Race and Environment as Factors in Social Progress.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 174-243; 498-500; 631-636.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 105-120.
- The Stability of the Racial Factor in Historic Time: the Inheritance of Acquired Characters.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 362-368.
Popenoe & Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 25-74; 99-115; 402-423.
- The Displacement of Natural Selection by Social Selection and its Consequences:
(a) the Differential Birth-rate; (b) Philanthropy; (c) The Punishment of Criminals; (d) Military Selection.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 392-409; 647-653; 676-696.
Popenoe and Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 116-146.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 386-413.
Bristol, Social Adaptation, pp. 92-102.
- The Correlation of Ability and Social Status; Nature and Nurture in Social Stratification. Tests of Ability; (a) economic. (b) psychological.
Popenoe & Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 1-24; 75-98.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 326-361; 369-385.
- The Qualitative Control of Population; Eugenic and Dysgenic Factors in Modern Society.
Popenoe and Johnson, Applied Eugenics, pp. 176-279.
- The Increase of Population in Modern Times:
a) General, (b) local, (c) occupational.
East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 45-109; 146-198.
- The Quantitative Control of Population; the Operation of Positive and Preventive Checks in Modern Society.
The Redistribution of population to relieve congestion. (a) local; (b) occupational.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 133-173.
East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 231-283.
- Marriage and the Family; Disintegrative Forces and their Control.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 252-273.
East, Mankind at the Crossroads, pp. 318-339.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 317-375; 674-675.
B. Passive Intellectual and Moral Adaptation.
- The Raw Material of Mental and Moral Development; Human Nature and its Re-Making
McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 19-120.
- The Original Nature of Man; Instinct vs. Environment in Human Institutions.
McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 121-227.
- The Psychology of the Crowd; Fundamental Processes of Social Behavior; the Nature of the “Group Mind”.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 503-521.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 417-444.
McDougall, Social Psychology, pp. 279-301, 322-351.
- Education as the Instrument of Intellectual Adaptation; a Sociological View of the Objective and the Methods in Education.
Spencer, Education, pp. 21-128.
- Religion as the Instrument of Moral Adaptation; an Appraisal of Current Tendencies in Religion and Ethics.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 481-497.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 529-549.
Carver, Religion Worth having, pp. 3-24; 93-140.
- The Problem of the Morally Unadapted; the Nature and Causes of Crime; a Program for Social Control.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 654-673.
Ferri, Criminal Sociology (to be assigned).
Parmelee, Criminology (to be assigned).
C. Active Physical Adaptation.
- Material Adaptation as the Productive Utilization of Human Energy; Prevalent Forms of Waste and their Elimination.
Carver, The Economy of Human Energy, pp. 140-181.
Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, pp. 35-101.
- The Problem of Material Mal-Adaptation; Poverty and its Causes; a Program for Social Reform.
Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 349-383.
Warner, American Charities, pp. 36-90.
- The Nature and Justification of Property; Problems of Ownership and Control in Modern Industry.
Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 304-323.
Tawney, The Acquisitive Society, pp. 1-83.
- Radical Programs of Social Reform; Socialism, Anarchism, Syndicalism, and their Variants.
Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 232-263.
Taussig, Inventors and Money-makers, pp. 76-135.
- Liberty and Equality as Practicable and Compatible Ideals; the Peculiar Destiny of the American Nation.
Carver, Essays in Social Justice, pp. 264-280.
Carver, The Present Economic Revolution in the United States, pp. 15-65; 233-263.
D. Active Moral Adaptation, or Social Control in its Broader Aspects.
- The Place of the State in Human Adaptation. Physical Compulsion as a System of Social Control. Punishment. Voluntary Agreement. The Problem of the Reconciliation of Group Interests and Individual Interests.
Bushee, Principles of Sociology, pp. 176-205.
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 750-763.
Mill, Essay on Liberty, chs. 1, 2, and 4.
- The Essential Nature of Democracy; Sensitivity and how it is achieved (a) in a coercive state, (b) in a non-coercive business.
Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Pt. V, Chs. XVII, XVIII and XIX.
- Problems of Modern Democracy; a Survey of the claims of Democracy as the “Ideally Best Polity”
Carver, Sociology and Social Progress, pp. 764-787.
Mill, Essay on Representative Government, chs. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6.
- The Possibility of Progress; a Recapitulation of Inorganic, Organic, and Social Evolutions and a Forecast of Future Developments.
(Reading to be assigned)
Reading Period
Ec 8a Professor Carver.
Sumner and Keller: Science of Society, Vol. I. Chs. I-X inclusive, Chs. XVIII, XIX.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in economics, 1895-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1) Box 2, Folder “Economics, 1927-1928”.
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1927-28
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 8a1
Final Examination
Allow about one hour to each part of the examination.
I
- Below are given two contrasting views regarding: (a) the effects which an increase in numbers “in any given state of civilization” might be expected to have on the productive capacity of society; (b) the cause of want and misery in society. Which of these seems to you the more reasonable in each of these respects, and why? State in each case the considerations which, in your opinion, led the writer to take the particular view of the matter which he did.
“A greater number of people cannot, in any given state of civilization, be collectively so well provided for as a smaller. The niggardliness of nature, not the injustice of society, is the cause of the penalty attached to over-population.”
“I assert that in any given state of civilization a greater number of people can collectively be better provided for than a smaller. I assert that the injustice of society, not the niggardliness of nature, is the cause of the want and misery which the current theory attributes to over-population.” - What is the attitude of Sumner and Keller on the question of “natural” rights? What is your own attitude? Would a man whose labor is absolutely superfluous to society have any right to a subsistence, in your opinion? Explain fully the grounds on which you base your judgment.
II
- Discuss the relation of sensitivity to democracy and point out the principal ways by which those who govern or manage are made sensitive to the interests of those who are governed or managed.
- What is meant by the vertical mobility of labor and what social institutions tend to decrease and what tend to increase it?
- Suppose that, from the beginning of human evolution, individual effort had been more effective than associated effort, do you think that men would have developed a social nature? Give reasons for your answer.
III
- Sumner and Keller have traced back all of our important social institutions to four primary interests in man. What are these interests and what are the institutions arising from each of them?
- Explain concisely each of the following terms, showing by your answer that you have a clear understanding of their several meanings:
- the man-land ratio;
- parallel induction;
- intellectual egalitarianism;
- maintenance-mores;
- ghost-fear;
- non-sustentative lethal selection;
- Marx’s theory of economic stratification;
- assortative mating
- Men are not sufficiently equipped with instincts to insure automatic behavior which has survival value in the complex life of modern society, neither are they sufficiently endowed with intelligence to secure rational behavior which has survival value. Between the limited field of behavior controlled by instinct and the equally limited field of behavior controlled by reason, there is apparently a wide gap. How is this gap filled?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers Mid-years, 1927-1928(HUC 7000.55). Papers printed for Mid-year Examinations: History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. January-February, 1928.
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JOSLYN AWARDED $6000
END PRIZE FALLS TO PENN. MAN
May 22, 1920
Carl Smith Joslyn ’20 of Springfield, now working his way through college, has won the Truxton Beale prize of $6000. This award was made as a result of the Walker Blaine Beale memorial contest for a Republican Platform suitable for use in the approaching campaign. The prize was offered by Truxton Beale for the purpose of stimulating political study among young people, and was to be won by a Republican not over 25 years of age.
His Platform Decisive and Complete
Mr. Joslyn’s platform is a well-built and well-reasoned document, embracing nearly a score of the outstanding questions of the day. His Republican convictions are set forth with incisive moderation, which lends emphasis to every statement. He deals expeditiously with the various international and socialistic delusions; sets forth a peace program as clear as it is decisive; makes a quick analysis of the league of nations and puts well defined limits to its powers. The greater part of his platform is, however, devoted to domestic problems, beginning with the high cost of living and following its economic and sociological ramifications through the relations of labor and industry, production and economy, taxation, railroads, foreign trade and merchant marine. ment. He ends with the following paragraphs:
“The Republican party appeals to the people for their support on the stand which it has taken against the abuse of the executive power and for the preservation of the sovereignty and independence of the United States. Its principles and policies are all formulated by a liberal and constructive statesmanship. Its creed is one of undivided Americanism; one faith, one loyalty, one devotion–and these in the service of upbuilding and strengthening the great United States of America, the country which gave the world the ideals of liberty and justice and which has dedicated its future to their perpetuation and advancement.”
Other Prizes Also Fall to College Men
The second prize of $3000 goes to Howard B. Wilson of Philadelphia, a student at the University of Pennsylvania and the third of $1000 to W. P. Smith, a student at the University of Michigan. The judges were President Nicholas Murray Butler of Columbia University, former United States Senator Beveridge and former United States Ambassador David Jayne Hill.
Source: Archive of the Harvard Crimson, May 22, 1960.
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History of U. Maryland’s Sociology Department
Although classes began on this campus in October 1859, the first sociology course was not taught until fall semester 1919. The course was “Elementary Sociology.” From the time of this first course until 1935, when a separate Department of Sociology was established, all sociology courses were offered by the Economics Department. During the 1970s, the Sociology Department was restructured and Anthropology and Criminology became separate programs. Today, the Sociology Department houses the Center for Innovation, Program for Society and the Environment, Maryland Time Use Laboratory, Center for Research on Military Organizations, Group Processes Lab and is affiliated with the Maryland Population Research Center.
Over the years, the sociology faculty has included many nationally and internationally renowned scholars. In the 1920s, sociology courses were taught by George Peter Murdock, who later created the Human Relations Area Files. In 1938, Logan Wilson, who later became the President of the University of Texas, joined the faculty for a few years. C. Wright Mills, the author of The Power Elite, White Collar, and The Sociological Imagination, was a member of the faculty from 1941-1945. The most renowned scholar on the faculty during the last quarter-century was Morris Rosenberg, the world’s foremost student of how social forces shape the self-esteem.
Since its founding, the Department has had eleven leaders: Theodore B. Manny, Carl Joslyn, Edward Gregory, Harold Hoffsommer, Robert Ellis, Kenneth C. W. Kammeyer, Jerald Hage, William Falk, Lee Hamilton, Suzanne Bianchi, and Reeve Vanneman. The current chair is Patricio Korzeniewicz.
Among the many people who have earned a degree from this department and subsequently achieved considerable recognition are William Form, the first person to hold a Ph.D. (1944) from this department; Parren Mitchell, who became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives; Adele Stamp, for whom the Stamp Student Union is named, and Charles Wellford of the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Source: University of Maryland, Department of Sociology. Webpage: “History of the Sociology Department”.
Image Source: Thomas Nixon Carver (left) and Carl Smith Joslyn (right) from the faculty photos in the Harvard Class Album 1932.
About a dozen posts ago I provided the text to a 1913 article on economics education written by E. R. A. Seligman and James Sullivan that was published in A Cyclopedia of Education, edited by Paul Monroe and published by Macmillan. Since the field of sociology was a fraternal twin of economics in many academic divisions at the time and not an uncommon field for graduate students of economics to choose as one of their fields of examination, this post provides now the text for the analogous article on sociology education published in the same 1913 “Cyclopedia”.
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SOCIOLOGY.
Alvan A. Tenney, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Sociology, Columbia University.
Franklin H. Giddings, Ph.D., LL.D.
Professor of Sociology and the History of Civilization, Columbia University.
Scope of the Subject. —
Sociology is the scientific study of society. Men, and many of the lower animals, live in groups. The scientific problem is to dis cover, by means of observation, induction, and verification, quantitative expressions for the regular ways in which group life operates, i.e. what, in quantitative terms, are the consequences of the fact that “man is a political animal.” Study of this problem necessitates inquiry into the origin, composition, interrelationships and activities of groups. It includes consideration of the environmental, biological, and psychological factors which, historically, have conditioned the character of such groups as the process of evolution has produced. It requires investigation also of such differences and resemblances among groups as are of significance in explaining the control which the group exercises over the individuals composing it. For quantitative expression the statistical method must be used. The ultimate aim of such study is to create a scientific basis for the conscious control of human society, to the end that evolution may be transformed into progress both for the race and for the individual. Unfortunately the scope of the subject has not been always thus conceived by teachers who label their courses Sociology. The latter half of the nineteenth century, the pioneer period in scientific sociology, witnessed a remarkable development of interest in the problems of philanthropy and penology. Inquiries into the causes of poverty and crime stimulated inquiry into the broader field of social causation in general, and the term sociology was used loosely to cover any portion of these fields. (See Social Sciences.) The term “applied sociology” for some time was equivalent to philanthropy and penology (q.v.). Recognition of the fact, however, that a theory of sociology can be “applied” in the guidance of public policy in every department of social life has initiated a movement, in America especially, to segregate the special problems of philanthropy and penology under the term social economy. This movement has not worked itself out fully, and there are still many courses given as sociology that should be called social economy. Sociology, in the scientific sense, of necessity uses the materials of history, and the demonstration or the concrete illustration of sociological principles has led naturally to systematic treatment of the historical evolution of society. It has been customary, therefore, to include, as a legitimate part of the scientific study of society, the history of social institutions. Beyond these limits there is a more or less indefinite zone of subjects such as social ethics, civics, social legislation, or even certain special questions in political economy and philosophy that have been included under the term sociology. The popular tendency, however, to make the term cover discussion of any social question whatsoever is gradually disappearing.
The present status of sociology as a science has been a direct result of the history of the subject itself. No one has yet done for sociology what Marshall did for economics. None of the textbooks is entirely satisfactory nor has entire agreement yet been reached as to the subjects which should receive most attention in a fundamental course. Nearly all the pioneers in sociology, with the exception of the very earliest, still retain leadership both in the science itself and in university chairs. Though all such leaders agree on fundamental points, each has naturally emphasized in his teaching that phase of the subject to which he has contributed most. At the present time, however, both the leaders and the large body of younger teachers who have been trained by them are beginning to place somewhat the same relative emphasis on the various factors that have been found useful in explaining the problems of the science. Nevertheless, even now the teacher is compelled to organize his own courses to a considerable extent on the basis of his own reading and such special training as he may be fortunate enough to have had. The particular form which that organization takes in any given instance is usually dependent to a considerable degree upon the university at which the teacher has studied and upon the sources with which he has become familiar. The conditions which have made this situation inevitable can be appreciated only by understanding the history of the subject itself and thus realizing both the richness of the field and the freedom in choice of material which is open to the teacher.
History of the Subject. —
The beginning of sociology, in the study of society itself, must have commenced far earlier than historical records permit proof of the fact; for the propensity of individuals to take thought as to how a group of men may be controlled can hardly be considered a recently acquired trait. Primitive man early developed systematic methods for teaching youth the means whereby both nature and man could apparently be controlled, and the teaching of that part of primitive magic which pertained to social control must have constituted one of the first courses in sociology. Problems of warfare, leadership, and group dominion must have also led both to practical knowledge of the nature of group activity and to the transmission of that knowledge from generation to generation.
Of necessity the statesman has ever been a sociologist. Likewise the philosopher has always busied himself with the relation of man to his fellow man. When Plato wrote the Republic and Aristotle the Politics the philosophical study of the subject was well advanced. A considerable part of the education of a Grecian youth was thus definitely in the field now called sociology. Later, when the evolution of world-empires led to the study of how great bodies of heterogeneous groups might be maintained in a single organized and harmoniously working system, men began to construct theories of group action, e.g. those of sovereignty and of the contractual nature of the state. Machiavelli, Bodin, Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau each added elements to the growing body of social theory and helped to render the theory of group action more precise. Finally, in the nineteenth century, when the bounds of knowledge had become world-wide, when the development of the natural sciences had demonstrated the utility of exact scientific method and when the rise of modern nations, the growth of the industrial system, the ideals of democratic government, and the theory of evolution had begun to influence men, Comte and Spencer led the way in the construction of a comprehensive theory of society, utilizing scientific method to elucidate modern problems of social evolution and of social progress. August Comte (q.v.) first used the word sociology in the Cours de Philosophie positive, and it was he who first insisted upon the use of the positive method in the development of the subject. It was Herbert Spencer, however, who in Social Statics, in the various volumes of the Synthetic Philosophy, and in The Study of Sociology attempted by wide observation to demonstrate that universal laws operate in human society. The work of many other men ought, however, to be included in a fuller statement of the important contributors to the development of scientific sociology in the latter half of the nineteenth century. To the influence of Charles Darwin and his kinsman Francis Galton, for example, must chiefly be credited that intensification of interest in the part which biological influences play in society which has resulted in the so-called eugenic school. (See Eugenics.) In the comparative study of institutions the pioneer work of Sir H. S. Maine cannot be forgotten, nor in the philological method of tracing social relationships, that of the Grimm brothers. In anthropo-geography and ethnology, moreover, there were such men as Ratzel, Robertson-Smith, McLennan, Morgan, and many others. Without the work of these men and their followers sociology must have rested upon a far more speculative foundation than is now the case.
Concerning the chief writers who have followed these leaders and who have contributed more particularly to sociological theory in the narrower sense of the term, it must suffice merely to mention names and to indicate the portion of the field in which each has done his chief work. Of such writers Durkheim has particularly emphasized division of labor as the essential factor in the explanation of society; Tarde, imitation; Le Bon, the impression of the mass on the individual; Gumplowicz, the struggle of races; Ratzenhofer, the motivating power of interests; De Greef, social contact and social contract ; Simmel, the forms of society and the process of socialization; Ward, the importance of human intelligence and inventiveness ; Sumner, the unconscious processes in the evolution of institutions; Giddings, sympathy and likemindedness as subjective causes of the origin and maintenance of groups, the tendency to type formation, and the identification of type form with that of the group; Small, the interests to which men react and the methods of the subject; Ross, social control; and Cooley, social organization.
The competent teacher of sociology to-day utilizes the work of all of these men and that of many others who have elucidated less striking phases of the subject. If, perchance, he be capable of contributing to the science, he may be aiding in the recently inaugurated effort to place the entire subject on a quantitative basis.
The Teaching of Sociology.—
The organized teaching of sociology as a university subject began long after the questions with which it deals had gained a firm hold upon the public mind. Little by little teachers of other political or social sciences which had already attained a recognized place in the educational system began to introduce sociological material into their courses and sometimes without sufficient justification to call the result sociology. Popular courses of lectures under the authority of recognized institutions of learning and dealing with almost every conceivable social question sprang up in nearly every civilized land and were called sociology. It was on this inclusive basis that in 1886 a report was made to the American Social Science Association that practically all of some hundred or more universities and colleges in the United States gave instruction in some branch of social science. A similar report could doubt less have been made for every country in Europe.
The first teaching of scientific sociology as a regular part of a college curriculum appears to have been in the United States when Professor Sumner in 1873 introduced Spencer’s Study of Sociology as a textbook at Yale. In 1880 the Trustees of Columbia College established the School of Political Science in that institution, and in it Professor Mayo-Smith received the chair of adjunct professor of political economy and social science. The first department of social science was created at Chicago University in 1894. In the same year the first chair of sociology definitely so called was created in Columbia, and was held then, as now, by Professor Giddings.
The entire decade in which these last mentioned events occurred, however, showed a marked increase of interest, by educators, in sociology. By 1895 the University of Chicago announced numerous courses in the subject and at least twenty-five other colleges and universities in the United States were teaching sociology proper. As many more had made provision for instruction in charities and correction. In Belgium the Université Nouvelle de Bruxelles, established in 1894, with the eminent sociologist Guillaume de Greef as its first Rector, was itself launched largely because of a revolt against the conservatism of other universities with respect to the social sciences. De Greef’s work is now largely supplemented by that of Professor Waxweiler and his staff of the Institut Solvay in the same city. Instruction is both in scientific sociology and social economy. In Switzerland as late as 1900 the only instruction in the subject consisted of a course by Professor Wuarin, the economist, given at Geneva, and one by Dr. Ludwig Stein, Professor of Philosophy at Bern. Italy has produced a number of sociologists of eminence, e.g.Lombroso, Ferri, Sighele, Ferrero, and Sergi, but even in 1900 not one of them was teaching in a university. In that year also there did not exist a single chair of sociology, so called, in Germany. Throughout the preceding six academic years, however, or during one or more of them, courses in sociology were given by Simmel (Berlin), Sombart (Breslau), Bernheim (Greifswald), Sherrer (Heidelberg), Tönnies (Kiel), and Barth (Leipzig). Schäffle of Stuttgart had also become known as the chief representative of the “organic” school. France, the land of the early physiocrats in economics and the home of Comte, was almost the last to organize instruction in the social sciences. During the first three quarters of the nineteenth century no other social sciences were taught in France than the strictly juridical and moral. At the beginning of the last quarter, however, a place for political economy was made in the examination for the bachelor’s degree in law. Even in 1900, according to Professor Gide, sociology was not taught anywhere in France in the form of a regular course, but three professors of philosophy and one of law were delivering free lectures on the subject, Durkheim at Bordeaux, Bouglé at Montpellier, Bertrand at Lyon, and Haurion at Toulouse. Letourneau, however, had by this time achieved a reputation in Paris. The privately supported Collège Libre des Sciences Sociales, had been found in 1892, but the courses included in its somewhat glittering program consisted of but ten lectures each, and were not well attended. Nevertheless, the most celebrated of French sociologists, Gabriel Tarde, first delivered at that institution in 1897 the lectures that subsequently appeared as his Lois Sociales. The school was later organized as the École des Hautes Études Sociales. At the Collège de France, also, certain courses in sociology were given after 1895, honoris causa.
In Austria Gumplowicz and Ratzenhofer have been the most noted names. The former taught at Graz. Russia contributed Lilienfeld and Novicow, but did not establish chairs for them. In Great Britain there was no chair or lectureship in the subject in any university prior to 1904 in spite of the fact that the Sociological Society was already in existence. The first important systematic series of lectures on sociology in the University of London was given in that year. Prior to that, however, Professor Geddes had been lecturing in Glasgow, and at the London School of Economics the sociological movement had received encouragement.
Such were the beginnings of systematic instruction in sociology. It is not practicable here to follow in detail the later development of the movement in all countries. The United States has introduced the subject in institutions of learning more rapidly than has been the case elsewhere. Nevertheless there has been advance in all countries. The present status of the subject in educational institutions in the United States is well reflected by the report of December, 1910, upon the questionnaire issued by the committee on the teaching of sociology of the American Sociological Society. The questionnaire was sent to 396 institutions, of which over 366 were known to give courses in sociology. One hundred and forty-five replies were received. One hundred and twenty-eight institutions reported one or more courses in sociology. In addition to universities and colleges, five theological and twelve normal schools answered the questionnaire. In an effort to gauge the character of subject matter chiefly emphasized in the 128 institutions the number of times various types of subject matter were specifically mentioned in the replies was tabulated and resulted in the following classification and marks: historical subject matter, 84 ; psychological, 80; practical, 56; economic, 22; descriptive and analytic, 21; biological, 16; In addition, definite reference to “sociological theory” occurred 40 times and to “social pathology” 13 times. Under the first subject was included specific mention of anthropology, ethnology, institutions, and social evolution; under the second, social psychology, association, and imitation; under the third, congestion, housing, philanthropy, criminology, and “social problems”; under the fourth, industrial and labor conditions and socialism; under the fifth, physical influences and the study of a specific social group; under the sixth, eugenics and statistical treatment of population. These figures and classes do not imply exclusive or preponderating attention to any one of the classes of subjects mentioned, but merely indicate roughly the type of sociological subject matter which is primarily emphasized in the educational institutions of the country at large. Eighty-six specific suggestions for subject matter to form a fundamental course distributed emphasis as follows historical, 28; psychological, 25; practical, 16; biological, 7; descriptive and analytic, 7; economic, 3. The same report includes a statement of texts and authorities cited in five or more replies to the questionnaire.
From the foregoing it is possible to understand clearly why sociology has not as yet made its way into the high school. The subject is already beginning to find a place in the curricula of normal schools, however, and sooner or later it will make its way in a simple form either to supplement or eventually to precede elementary courses in economics, civics, and history. Logically, a discussion of the fundamental bases of social organization should precede any of the questions that assume the existence of a particular sort of social organization, and there is, in reality, no reason at all why the essential factors that cooperate to produce the activities of social groups cannot be explained in such a way that a child may appreciate the simpler modes of their operation and thus be helped to understand later the complex relations of the social life of modern civilization.
Methods of Teaching Sociology. —
The subject matter of sociology, as is evident from the preceding review, lends itself most conveniently to the lecture method of presentation — at least when it is taught as a university subject. This is preeminently true if the historical evolution of society is to be treated in an adequate fashion. No student can be required to do the reading necessary for independent judgment upon the disputed points which often baffle the expert, nor would it be possible to discuss all phases of the subject in the brief time which the ordinary student can devote to sociology. The teacher may usually consider his work in this field fairly satisfactory if he succeeds in making clear the fact that the causes of social evolution can be subjected to scientific analysis as truly, if not as exactly, as any other phenomena whatsoever, if he is able to explain how the combination of various factors — physical environment, race, dynamic personality, economic, religious, and other cultural institutions — created the various types of society that have existed from the earliest forms of tribal organization to the modern world society, if he indicates the sources of information and their trustworthiness, and if in the presentation of these subjects he develops in the student a realization of the historical perspective from which it is necessary to view mankind’s development whenever rational criticism of public policy is required.
In the more closely analytical study of sociological theory more use can be made of existing texts. Even with these, however, the teacher must be ready to illustrate, explain, supplement, and criticize on the basis of reading inaccessible to the student or too extensive for him to master. Discussion of special problems in theory that arise from assigned readings in original sources is indispensable, however, if independent thinking is to be gained. For this purpose source books are a valuable aid. Many teachers have found it possible to stimulate intense interest and thought by setting each student the task of independently observing and interpreting for himself by the Le Play monographic method the phenomena of sociological significance in a concrete social group or community with which he himself is or may become familiar (e.g. his home town, college, or club). By collecting, through observation of such a group, data concerning situation, healthfulness, resources, economic opportunities, racial types, religious, educational, political, and other cultural traits, sex and age classes, nationality, ambitions and desire for wealth, justice and liberty, degree of self-reliance or dependence, amount of cooperation, constraint, discipline, tolerance, emotional and rational reactions, relations with other groups and other such matters, the student gains a lively appreciation of the factors which make or mar the efficiency of the group of which he is himself a member. By comparison of the results of such study in the seminar, characteristic and important differences may be made vivid and vitality given to discussion of the regular antecedents of social activities.
More general studies in demography, based on the census or other official records, and pursued in such a way as to throw light on current problems such as immigration, race questions, growth of cities, significant movements of population, mortality, birth, marriage and divorce rates, or sanitary conditions, often serve to give a concreteness to theory that could not otherwise be gained. Such work, moreover, often forms an excellent preparation for the more difficult task of analyzing the mental phases of collective activity, such as mob action and the formation of rational public opinion, or of determining the conditions under which social choice is free or controlled, conservative or radical, impulsive or deliberate, governed by tradition or based on scrutiny of evidence.
In addition to methods of this sort some teachers have even inspired their students with enthusiasm for making sociology a quantitative science by first grounding them well in statistical methods and then setting them simple though definite and concrete sociological problems that involve the use of that method. For example, it is quite within the power of any college class acquainted with such a simple text as Elderton’s Primer of Statistics to count the number of hours per week spent by each person in a group upon such recreational activities as are carried on, plot out the result, find the prevailing tendency, apply the usual statistical measures, median, mode, quartiles, etc., and gradually acquire facility in attacking more extensive data. (See Graphic Curve.) For instruction of this character the regular meeting of seminars or practicums for report by students upon their particular tasks becomes the most convenient pedagogical device to promote independent criticism and discussion. The seminar method is also useful for the discussion of special reports upon readings in the works of the more prominent sociological writers. In order that the observational method may be successfully applied it is evident that the canons of inductive method must be thoroughly understood by the student. It is also apparent that in the review of extant theory there must be appreciation of the criteria for judging the value of evidence. Above all, encouragement must be given to every inclination on the part of the student to investigate particular problems for himself. He must be made to realize, moreover, that sociologists must be as willing to undertake protracted and laborious tasks in the assembling of data as are the biologists, the psychologists, or the chemists.
The foregoing methods are applicable chiefly to the university student. In college or in high school the methods employed are naturally more useful if they arouse the student’s interest in problems that pertain to civic welfare, and if they aid him in understanding the forces that make or mar the efficiency of the particular social groups in which he is himself to play a part. For such purposes the method of studying current social problems becomes extremely useful, provided the teacher is skillful in the selection of the topics for discussion and can utilize sociological principles of interpretation. By using the ordinary facts present in every town or village, it is possible much earlier than is usually supposed to have the pupil observe significant sociological facts and become familiar with the scientific mode of interpreting them.
In addition to these simple statements of method it is, perhaps, unnecessary to remark that in the teaching of the science itself the most inspiring instructor is he who is himself able to employ successfully the usual deductive, inductive, comparative, historical, and statistical methods in the discovery of new truth.
References: —
Bagehot, W. Physics and Politics. (New York, 1887.)
Bernard, L. L. The Teaching of Sociology in the United States. Amer. Jour. of Sociology, Vol. XV, p. 164. (1909-1910.)
Carver, T. N. Sociology and Social Progress. (Boston, 1905.)
Chapin, F. S. Report of the Questionnaire of the Committee on Teaching of the American Sociological Society. Publications of the Amer. Sociological Society, Vol. V. (1900.)
Clow, F. R. Sociology in Normal Schools. Amer. Jour. of Sociology, Vol. XVI, p. 253. (1910- 1911.)
Cooley, C. H. Social Organization. (New York, 1909.)
Dealey, J. Q. The Teaching of Sociology. Publications of the Amer. Sociological Society, Vol. IV, p. 177. (1909.)
Ellwood, C. A. How Should Sociology be Taught as a College or University Subject? Amer. Jour. of Sociology, Vol. XII. p. 588. (1906-1907.)
Giddings, F. H. Modern Sociology. The International Monthly, Vol. II, No. 5. (Nov., 1900.)
___________. Democracy and Empire. (New York, 1901.)
___________. Principles of Sociology. (New York, 1896.)
___________. Sociology. Columbia Univ. Series on Science, Philosophy, and Art. (New York, 1908.)
___________. Sociology as a University Subject. Political Science Quarterly, Vol. VI, p. 635. (1891.)
___________. The Province of Sociology. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. I, p. 76. (1890.)
Hobhouse, L. T. Social Evolution and Political Theory. (New York, 1911.)
Howerth, I. W. The Present Condition of Sociology in the United States. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. V, Pt. I, p. 260. (1894.)
Ross, E. A. Foundations of Sociology. (New York, 1905.)
___________. Social Control. (New York, 1908.)
Semple, E. C. Influences of Geographic Environment. (New York, 1911.)
Small, A. W. General Sociology. (Chicago, 1905.)
Spencer, H. First Principles, Pt. II. (London, 1887.)
___________. Principles of Sociology. (London, 1885.)
___________. The Study of Sociology. (New York, 1884.)
Sumner, W. G. Folkways. (Boston, 1907.)
Tarde, G. Laws of Imitation. (New York, 1903.)
Tenney, A. A. Some Recent Advances in Sociology. Political Science Quarterly, Vol. XXV, No. 3. (Sept., 1910.)
Thomas, W. I. Source Book for Social Origins. (Chicago, 1909.)
Ward L. F. Contemporary Sociology. Amer. Jour. of Sociology, Vol. VII, p. 476. (1900-1901.)
___________. Pure Sociology. (New York, 1907.)
___________. Applied Sociology. (Boston, 1906.)
___________. Sociology at the Paris Exposition of 1900. Rep. U. S. Com. Ed., 1899-1900, Vol. II, pp. 1451-1593.
For a list of textbooks, together with statistics of their use in institutions of learning, see Reportof the Committee on Teaching of the American Sociological Society in Publications of the American Sociological Society, Vol. V., p. 123. (1910.)
Source: A Cyclopedia of Education, Paul Monroe (ed.), Vol. 5. (New York: Macmillan, 1913), pp. 356-361.
Image Source: Franklin H. Giddings in University and their Sons. History, Influence and Characteristics of American Universities with Biographical Sketches and Portraits of Alumni and Recipients of Honorary Degrees. Editor-in-chief, General Joshua L. Chamberlain, LL.D. Vol. II, pp. 453-5.
The outline below for an ambitious Harvard course organized jointly by Richard Musgrave and Martin C. Spechler in 1973 comes from John Kenneth Galbraith’s papers. Galbraith was invited to give a lecture on institutional economics and a couple of pages of keywords in the folder would appear to confirm that Galbraith indeed lectured on the topic.
Biographical information for Richard Musgrave was provided a few blog postings ago. Martin Spechler too was a Harvard alumnus (indeed all three of his academic degrees come from that institution) and so I’ll first insert the chronology of his academic jobs so one can meet another economic Ph.D. alumnus. Spechler’s main research field was comparative economic systems complemented by a strong interest in the history of economics (see the link to his 2007 c.v. below).
______________________
Martin C. Spechler (b. January 25, 1943, New York City)
A.B. in Social Studies (1964), A.M. in Economics (1967), Ph.D. in Economics (1971). Harvard
1965-1971. Harvard. Teaching fellow in economics and social studies.
1971-1973. Harvard. Lecturer on economics and on social studies.
1971-1974. Harvard. Head tutor in economics.
1973-1975. Harvard. Assistant professor of economics.
1974-1980. Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Department of Economics, lecturer.
1980-1982. Tel Aviv University. Department of Economics and School of General History. Senior lecturer (acting).
1982-1983. University of Washington, Seattle. School of International Studies. Visiting associate professor.
1983-1984. University Iowa, Iowa City. Visiting associate professor.
1984-1986. Indiana University, Bloomington. Visiting associate professor of economics and research associate, West European Studies.
1986-1990. Indiana University, Indianapolis. Associate professor of economics
1990-. Indiana University, Purdue University, Indianapolis. Professor of economics.
Source: Martin C. Spechler c.v. (December 2007).
______________________
ECONOMICS 2080
Tentative Lecture Schedule
[1973]
| 1. | September 27 | Spechler on Marxism |
| 2. | October 4 | Unger on Weber |
| 3. | October 9 (Tues.) | Galbraith on institutionalism |
| 4. | October 18 | Duesenberry on consumer behavior |
| 5. | October 25 | (?) on entrepreneurs |
| 6. | November 1 | M. Roberts on government bureaucracy |
| 7. | November 8 | J. Bower on corporate organization |
| 8. | November 15 | Doeringer on workers and unions |
| 9. | November 20 (Tuesday) | Bowles (?) on Marxian theory of the state |
| 10. | November 29 | D. Bell (?) on elite theory |
| 11. | December 6 | J. Q. Wilson on pluralism |
| 12. | December 13 | Hirschman on trade policy |
| 13. | December 20 | Musgrave on objectivity in economics and social science |
Harvard University
Economics 2080
Social Influences on Economic Action
Fall Term, Thursday 4-6
Martin C. Spechler
Holyoke 833, Office; 10-12 (daily)
Richard Musgrave
Littauer 326
Designed to be taken in one semester to be followed by a seminar, this course examines the social context of economic activity. It covers theoretic and applied writings in several significant traditions: Marxist, Weberian, institutionalist, and liberal. The list includes a more thorough reading of Marx and Weber than is usually available elsewhere and articles reporting contemporary research of a scale suitable for dissertations. Since certain topics of interest, such as stratification, are treated elsewhere in the Economics or allied departments, the range of topics is intentionally incomplete. But each topic includes competing paradigms and case studies making use of them. Each topic takes off from the limits of conventional economics to show that different assumptions and procedures show promise of answering important questions about economic life.
It is envisioned that the course will be taught during the first year in a conference format, with guest lecturers but with one or two Department members responsible for the entire course and always present in class. The course will culminate in the writing of a long (30-40 pages) case study, employing some or all of the theoretical perspectives which have been presented. There will also be a shorter paper early on to fix the theoretical perspectives in mind.
The course is intended for graduate students with some preparation in economics. To facilitate discussion, one might have to limit enrollment, though a diverse group would be highly desirable.
Works marked (*) are assumed as background; those marked (**) are supplementary.
A. The Content and Limits of Modern Economics: A Point of Departure
*Lord Robbins, An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science (2nd ed. 1935).
Emile Gruenberg, “The Meaning of Scope and External Boundaries of Economics.”
Kenneth E. Boulding, “The Verifiability of Economic Images.” Both in Sherman Roy Krupp, The Structure of Economic Science. (Prentice Hall, 1966), pp. 129-165.
Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Analytical Economics (Harvard University Press, 1966), Part I (especially pp. 92-129).
B. Three Social Perspectives on Economic Action
What are the hallmarks of “modern” — now misleadingly termed “Western” — society? What changes in productive relations, in ethos, and in political arrangements favored its development? This section examines in depth three major interdisciplinary systems which undertake to define, explain, and analyze the working of modern society, particularly the limits placed on the market by social forces.
Week 1 (September 27) Marxism
Karl Marx, “Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy”
________, “Estranged Labor”
________, “Private Property and Communism”
________, “The Power of Money in Bourgeois Society”
________, “The German Ideology”, Part I
________, “Wage Labor and Capital”
________, “Capital”, Vol. 1 (selections) all in The Marx-Engels Reader (ed. By Robert C. Tucker), Norton Publ., pp. 306 [30-36 intended?], 56-83, 110-164, 167-317, 577-588.
Friedrich Engels, “Letters on Historical Materialism” in Tucker, ed., pp. 640-651 and 661-664. OR
Ernest Mandel, Marxist Economic Theory, Vol. I, chapters 5, 11; Vol. II, 12-14.
Week 2 (October 4) Weber
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, entire.
________, The Religion of China, IV, V, and VIII.
________, *General Economic History, Part IV
“Power, Capitalism and Rural Society in Germany,” and “National Character and the Junkers,” all in Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, pp. 159-195, 363-395.
Week 3 (October 11) Institutionalism
Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class, in Max Lerner, The Portable Veblen (Viking pb) chapters IV, VI.
________, “On the Merits of Borrowing,” from Imperial Germany and the Industrial Revolution, pp. 349-363 in M. Lerner, The Portable Veblen, op. cit.
________, The Theory of Business Enterprise, chapters III, IV, VII.
John Kenneth Galbraith, Economics and the Public Purpose (Houghton-Mifflin, 1973), chapters V, IX-XIV, and XIX.
Possible paper topics (illustrative only) for section B. Due October 18:
Paper: What do Marxist, Weberian, and Historical-institutional theories have to say about kinds of modern economies which have developed in the world?
**England, 1642-1851
David Landes, The Unbound Prometheus, introduction and chapter 1.
Barrington, Moore, Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, chapters I and VI.
E.J. Hobsbawm, Industry and Empire, chapters 1-7.
**Japan and China Compared
M. J. Levy, “Contrasting Factors in the Modernization of China and Japan,” in Simon Kuznets, Economic Growth: Brazil, India, Japan (Duke, 1955), pp. 496-536.
Henry Rosovsky, “Japan’s Transition to Modern Economic Growth, 1868-1885,” in Henry Rosovsky (ed.) Industrialization in Two Systems: Essays in Honor of Alexander Gerschenkron (Wiley, 1966). Bobbs-Merrill Reprint No. Econom-264.
Thomas C. Smith, “Japan’s Aristocratic Revolution,” Yale Review V (50), 1960-61, pp. 370-83, reprinted in R. Bendix and S.M. Lipset, Class, Status and Power (2nd ed.), pp. 135-40. The samurai class as modernizers.
Barrington Moore, Jr., Social Origins, op. cit., IV, V, VIII, IX. Particular attention to feudal land patterns as an obstacle to economic and political modernization.
or R.H. Tawney, Land and Labour in China (Octagon, 1964)
or Johannes Hirschmeier, The Origins of Entrepreneurship in Meiji Japan (Harvard, 1964).
**Indonesia, 1945-
Clifford Geertz, Peddlers and Princes (Chicago, 1963). An excellent example of economic anthropology in the Weberian tradition.
[Other suggestions and bibliography available from the instructors.]
C. How do Consumers, Workers, and Entrepreneurs form their Preferences for Market Activities?
This section examines the empirical evidence to date on the relative role of material incentives and job characteristics on productivity, on the effects of advertising on consumer attitudes, and on the relationship between historical experience and decisions about the future.
Week 4 (October 18) Consumer Behavior
*Robert Ferber, “Research on Household Behavior,” American Economic Review, Vol. 52 (1962), pp. 19-63. Reprinted in A.S.C. Ehrenburg and F.G. Pyatt, Consumer Behavior (Penguin, 1971).
*Karl Marx, “Alienated Labor,” and “Needs, Production, and the Division of Labor,” from Early Writings, ed. J. B. Bottomore, pp. 120-134.
*James S. Duesenberry, Income, Saving, and the Theory of Consumer Behavior, chapters I-IV.
J.K. Galbraith, The Affluent Society, (Revised edition), chapter 11.
Lester Telser, “Advertising and Cigarettes,” Journal of Political Economy (October, 1962), pp. 471-99).
Tony McGuiness and Keith Cowling, “Advertising and the Aggregate Demand for Cigarettes: An Empirical Analysis of a U.K. Market,” paper no. 31, Centre for Industrial Economic and Business Research, University of Warwick, England. On reserve in Littauer.
Lester D. Taylor and Daniel Weiserbs, “Advertising and the Aggregate Production Function,” American Economic Review, (September 1972), pp. 642-55.
George Katona, Burkhard Strumpel and Ernest Zahn, Aspirations and Affluence (McGraw-Hill, 1971), chapters 6-12. The effects and causes of consumer attitudes in the United States and Western Europe.
Week 5 (October 25) Entrepreneurs
Joseph Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, (Harper Torchbook, 1962), chapter XI-XIV.
Thomas C. Cochran, “Cultural Factors in Economic Growth,” and David Landes, “French Business and the Business Man: a Social and Cultural Analysis,” in Hugh G.J. Aitken, Explorations in Enterprise (Harvard University Press, 1965), pp, 122-38, 184-209.
Alexander Gerschenkron, “Social Attitudes, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development,” in Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective (Harvard, 1962), pp. 52-71. [note: workers’ attitudes will be discussed in week 8.]
D. How Do Large Organizations Behave?
The opportunities created by market power and the size of the hierarchy in modern economic bureaucracies probably allowed behavior far from the competitive norm. What are the elements of structure, control, and attitudes which influence corporate behavior? The readings include the Weberian, and the “bureaucratic politics” points of view; and the case comparisons include the U.S. Navy, French enterprise, the Society of Jesus, the Soviet industrial planning system, and the most important American public enterprise.
Week 6 (November 1) Government Bureaucracy
Max Weber, “Bureaucracy,” in Hans Gerth and C. Wright Mills, From Max Weber, pp. 196-244.
Charles Lindblom, “The Politics of Muddling Through,” Bobbs-Merrill Reprint, Public Administration Review XIX (Spring, 1959), pp.79-88: why strict means-end rationality is impossible in government bureaucracies.
A. Wildavsky, The Politics of the Budgetary Process, (Little, Brown, 1964) chapter 2.
Stanley Surrey, “Congress and the Tax Lobbyist: How Tax Provisions Get Enacted,” Harvard Law Review (1957), pp. 1145-70.
Sandford F. Borins, “The Political Economy of ‘The Fed,’” Public Policy (Spring, 1972), pp. 175-98.
Sanford Weiner, “Resource Allocation in Basic Research and Organizational Design,” Public Policy (Spring, 1972), pp. 227-55.
Benjamin Ward, The Socialist Economy: A Study of Organizational Alternatives, chapters 5 and 6.
The latter considers whether socialization, such as occurs in the Jesuits and the Navy, would overcome some of the control anomalies which have frustrated Soviet planning.
**Joseph Berliner, Factory and Manager in the U.S.S.R. (Harvard, 1957); a classic on informal organizations versus system goals.
Week 7 (November 8) Corporate Organization
A Harvard Business School case will be distributed for discussion.
*R.H. Coase, “The Nature of the Firm,” Economica, (1937) reprinted in G. J. Stigler and Kenneth Boulding,Readings in Price Theory (AEA, 1952), pp. 331-351.
Armen A. Alchian and Harold Demsetz, “Production, Information Costs, and Economic Organization,” American Economic Review (December, 1972), pp. 777-95.
Philip Selznick, Leadership in Administration (Row Peterson, 1957), chapter 4.
David Granick, Managerial Comparisons of Four Developed Countries (MIT, 1972), chapters 1-5, 9-13.
**Alfred Chandler, Jr. Strategy and Structure, chapters 1-3, 5-7, conclusion.
**Philip Selznick, TVA and the Grass Roots (Harper pb, 1966).
**Michelle Crozier, The Bureaucratic Phenomenon (Phoenix pb, 1964).
**Alfred Chandler. Pierre Dupont and the Modern Corporation.
Joseph L. Bower, “The Amoral Organization,” in R. Marris and E. G. Mesthene, Technology, the Corporation, and the State (forthcoming) or Harvard Business School 4-372-285.
Week 8 (November 15) Workers and Unions
Victor Vroom,”Industrial Social Psychology,” in Gardner B. Lindzey and Elliott Aronson, eds., The Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. V. (2nd ed.), 1969, pp. 196-248.
Work in America, report of a Special Task Force to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare (MIT Press, 1973), chapters 1, 2, 4, 5.
Mancur Olsen, Logic of Collective Goods (paperback, rev. ed., 1971), chapter III, pp. 66-97.
Suggested:
**John Goldthorpe et al., The Affluent Worker in the Class Structure, Cambridge University Press, 1969, pb).
**Andre Gorz, A Strategy for Labor (Beacon pb., 1968), chapter 4.
Leonard Goodwin, Do the Poor Want to Work? (Brookings, 1972).
E. Does Economic Power Give Rise to Political Power?
Marxist, elite and pluralist theorists all answer differently as to under what circumstances market power and material privilege are translated into political power and what sorts of groups (classes, corporations, trade associations, ideological coalitions, parties) contend for ascendancy. The readings examine such mechanisms as control of mass media, the common training and outlook of American and European elites, pressure group influence on Congressional elections, and the weakening of countervailing interests.
*Otto Eckstein, Public Finance (2nd ed.), chapters 1-2.
Week 9 (November 20, Tuesday) Marxian Theory of the State
Ralph Miliband, The State in Capitalist Society (Basic Books), entire.
Week 10 (November 29) Elite Theory
C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite, chapters 1-13.
G. William Domhoff, Who Rules America? (Spectrum pb. 1967), 1-5, 7.
Week 11 (December 6) Pluralism
Arnold M. Rose, The Power Structure, (Oxford pb, 1967), pp. 1-10, 15-24, 26-39, 70-78, 89-127, 131-133.
**J.K. Galbraith, The New Industrial State, chapters I-IX, XXV, and XXXV: A strong statement of the technological impetus towards convergence.
**Walter Adams, “The Military-Industrial Complex and the New Industrial State,” American Economic Review (May, 1968), pp. 652-665.
Stanley Lieberson, “An Empirical Study of Military-Industrial Linkages,” American Journal of Sociology, (1971), pp. 562-82.
George J. Stigler, “The Theory of Economic Regulation,” Bell Journal of Economic and Manag. Sci., (Spring, 1971), pp. 3-17.
Joseph C. Palamountain, Jr., The Politics of Distribution (Harvard University Press, 1955), II, IV, VII, VIII.
J.Q. Wilson, “Politics of Business Regulation” (revised ed.), mimeographed.
Week 12 (December 13) Trade Policy
Raymond A. Bauer, Ithiel de Sola Pool, and Lewis Anthony Dexter, American Business and Public Policy, The Politics of Foreign Trade (Aldine, 2nded., 1972), Parts II, IV-VI.
F. Validation of Theories about Economic Action
Week 13 (December 20) Objectivity in Economics and Social Science
*Milton Friedman, “The Methodology of Positive Economics.”
Max Weber, “The Meaning of ‘Ethical Neutrality’ in Sociology and Economics,” and “’Objectivity’ in Social Science and Social Policy,” in Max Weber, The Methodology of the Social Sciences (Free Press, 1949), pp. 1-112.
Imre Lakatos and Alan Musgrave, Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge Cambridge University Press pb. (Essays by T.S. Kuhn, S.E. Toulmin, K.R. Popper, and I. Lakatos), pp. 1-24, 39-59, 91-196.
Term papers due by January 17.
Source: John Kenneth Galbraith Personal Papers. Series 5 Harvard University File, 1949-1990, Box 521, Folder “[courses]: Economics 280: Musgrave Lecture. 9 October 1973”.
Image Source: Martin C. Spechler from the Department of Economics webpage, Indiana University Purdue University, Indianapolis archived at the Wayback Machine (February 18, 2003).
This post follows up the previous one that reports the economics textbooks used at Fisk University in Nashville, Tenn. at the time W. E. B. Du Bois was an undergraduate. Artifacts transcribed below highlight the “sociological turn” taken by Du Bois upon his appointment to a professorship in economics at history at Atlanta University after he obtained his Harvard Ph.D. in political science for a dissertation on the history of the slave trade.
As can be seen in the department descriptions for 1896-97 and 1897-98, the name of the department of instruction was changed from “Political Science and History” to “Sociology and History” in the first year that Du Bois was included among the faculty of Atlanta University. Du Bois’ research on “Negro problems” would have been unduly restricted if conducted within the methodology of economics of his time (or ours for that matter) which we can see must have been a factor that pushed him to the broader perspective offered by the sociology of his time with its emphasis on empirical material and statistical methods.
A relevant artifact here is the library card issued to W. E. B. Du Bois by the Royal Prussian Statistical Bureau in 1893 during his time as a student in Berlin.
Source: University of Massachusetts Amherst. Special Collections and University Archives. W. E. B. Du Bois papers, Series 1A. General Correspondence. Bücherzammlung [sic] des königlich preussischen statistischen Bureaus zu Berlin, Zulassungscarte.
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VI. POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE AND HISTORY.
[1896-97, Du Bois not yet listed as a member of the faculty]
It is intended to develop this department more fully, especially along the line of Sociology. Interest has been awakened throughout the country in the annual conferences held at Atlanta University in May — the first in 1896 — concerning problems in city life among the colored population. The library will soon be rich in books pertaining to Sociology.
As it now stands, the work of this department is as follows:
Political Science. Dole’s American Citizen, studied during the first year of the Normal and Preparatory courses, gives to our younger students an excellent introduction to this department. Civil Government in the Senior Normal year, and Civil Liberty in the Junior College, enrich this department still more; while International Law in the Senior year introduces the student to the principles underlying many burning questions of the day.
Economics. During Senior year Walker’s Political Economy, and White’s Money and Banking, also introduce the student to important national questions.
History, General and United States, is studied in the second and third years of the Normal course; while the College students have Guizot’s History of Civilization. For Greek History in the College, see Greek.
Source: Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Atlanta University, 1896-97, p. 31,
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W. E. Burghardt DuBois, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and History
VII. SOCIOLOGY AND HISTORY.
[1897-98]
It is intended to develop this department not only for the sake of the mental discipline but also in order to familiarize our students with the history of nations and with the great economic and social problems of the world, so that they may be able to apply broad and careful knowledge to the solving of the many intricate social questions affecting their own people. The department aims therefore at training in good intelligent citizenship, at a thorough comprehension of the chief problems of wealth, work and wages; and at a fair knowledge of the objects and methods of social reform. The following courses are established:
Citizenship. In the Junior Preparatory and Junior Normal classes Dole’s American Citizen is studied as an introduction. The Normal classes follow this by Fiske’s Civil Government in the Senior year, while Political Science has an important place in the Junior College year.
Wealth, Work and Wages. Some simple questions in this field are treated in the Junior Preparatory year, and the science of Economics is taken up in the Junior College year.
Social Reforms. Three terms of the Senior year are given to Sociology; the first term to a general study of principles, the second term to a general survey of social conditions, and the third term to a study of the social and economic condition of the American Negro, and to methods of reform.
In addition to this, graduate study of the social problems in the South by the most approved scientific methods, is carried on by the Atlanta Conference, composed of graduates of Atlanta, Fisk, and other institutions. The aim is to make Atlanta University the centre of an intelligent and thorough-going study of the Negro problems. Two reports of the Conference have been published, and a third is in preparation.
History. General and United States History are studied in the second and third years of the Normal course. Ancient history is taken in connection with the Ancient Languages and Bible study. Modern European history is studied in the Sophomore year; and some historical work is done in connection with other courses.
The library contains a good working collection of treatises in History and Sociology.
Source: Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Atlanta University, 1897-98, p. 4, 13.
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Textbooks assigned in Economics and Sociology
[1898-99]
Junior year Economics. Fall term. Hadley. (Economics)
Senior year Sociology. Fall term. Mayo-Smith (Statistics and Sociology).
Source: Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Atlanta University, 1898-99.
Economics
[Fisk University, Junior Year College textbook]
Arthur Twining Hadley. Economics. An Account of the Relations Between Private Property and Public Welfare. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1896.
Economics I. A Summary of Hadley’s Economics. Copyright Edw. W. Wheeler. Cambridge, Mass.: E. W. Wheeler, Printer, 1898. 53 pages. “A convenient hand-book for preparing the weekly written questions and all examinations…with an appendix containing suggestive topics for review.” [included in this post as a study guide]
Sociology and Statistics
[Fisk University, Senior Year College textbook]
“The present volume is issued as Part I. of a systematic Science of Statistics, and is intended to cover what is ordinarily termed Population Statistics…”
Mayo-Smith, Richmond. Statistics and Sociology. New York: Macmillan, 1895.
[Note: Mayo-Smith later published the second part of his systematic Science of Statistics as…]
“Part II., Statistics and Economics [covers] the statistics of commerce, trade, finance, and economic social life generally.
Mayo-Smith, Richmond. Statistics and Economics. New York: Macmillan, 1899.
Image Source: “W.E.B. Du Bois Educational Series at Great Barrington” webpage at the Housatonic Heritage webpage.