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Duke Harvard M.I.T. Nebraska Virginia War and Defense Economics

United States. College and University Courses on War Economics, 1942

 

This post is limited to the economics courses reported in a survey conducted in the days and months after the attack on Pearl Harbor that provides an extensive list of “War Courses” offered at U.S. colleges and universities at the time. The post begins with a short description of the survey itself. Next, two tables provide the names of institutions, courses (with descriptions), and instructors together with enrollment statistics. The post ends with a short bibliography of books listed for some of the courses on war economics.

Most of the courses in the survey (and not included here) concern administrative matters such as the procedures governing military procurement. There is at least one course on the economics of war that had been organized at Harvard by Seymour Harris not included in this survey (68 schools did not respond).

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Not included in the survey

Harvard University. Economic Aspects of War, organized by Seymour Harris, 1940

Final Exam for Economic Aspects of War, 1940

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How the Study was was Made
[pp. 11-13]

In April, 1942, a study was issued entitled A Report on War Courses offered by Collegiate Schools of Business and Departments of Economics. In this study were presented the combined information sent in by 58 schools and departments listing 196 separate courses. The Department of Commerce in cooperation with the National Conference of State University Schools of Business had distributed these questionnaires to approximately 175 schools on December 11, 1941. The questionnaires called for information on war courses offered after September, 1939.

In May another questionnaire was sent out to approximately the same number of schools of business administration and departments of economics. This questionnaire asked the school to list those war courses which were not reported for inclusion in the April report. Replies were received from 120 schools, 89 of which reported that they were offering war courses not previously reported, and 31 of which reported that they were offering no war courses. Sixty-eight schools did not reply.

Since the questionnaire asked the schools to “include established courses such as Business Policy and Cost Accounting provided they have been reoriented to meet war needs”, the element of judgment enters in to qualify the results. Some schools reported that they had organized no new courses but had reorganized old ones to meet war needs. They felt, however, that the alteration was not great enough to warrant reporting them as war courses. Other schools reported courses which contained in their description very little of a war nature. Courses which it was felt were not primarily war courses were not included in the report. In addition, courses were excluded which it was felt did not fall clearly into the field of business administration and economics.

Any further information which is desired on any of the courses reported here can be secured by writing to the instructor of the particular course. His name appears along with the description of the course.

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War Courses Offered in Collegiate Schools of Business and Departments of Economics

Economics of War

SCHOOL

COURSE TITLE WEEKS
OF COURSE
HOURS
PER
WEEK
CREDIT
HOURS
ON
CAMPUS
SEC-TIONS STU-
DENTS

PREREQ-UISITES*

U. of Akron, Akron, Ohio.

Economics of War

16

2 2 No 1 15

2C

Albright Col., Reading, Pa. Economic Problems

16

3 3 Yes 1 18

2C

U. of Ariz., School of Bus. & Pub. Admin. Tucson, Ariz.

Economics of War 18 3 3 Yes 1 17 2C
U. of Ariz., School of Bus. & Pub. Admin. Tucson, Ariz. Geography of War Areas 18 3 3 Yes

Babson Inst., School of Bus. Admin., Wellesley, Mass.

War Economics 12 3 0 Yes 2 40 C
Brooklyn Col., Brooklyn, N.Y. Econ. of Defense & War 16 3 3 Yes 2 34

2C

Brown U., Dept. of Econ., Providence, R.I.

Economics of War 30 3 6 Yes 1 45 2C
Bucknell U., Dept. of Commerce & Finance, Lewisburg, Pa. Econ. of Modern War 6 6 ½ 3 Yes 1 20

2C

Carleton Col., Dept. of Econ., Northfield, Minn.

Economics of War 18 3 3 Yes 1 2C
City College of N.Y., Commerce Center, New York, N.Y. Price Control Reguls. 6 6 3 Yes 1 39

U. of Cincinnati, Col. of Engin. & Commerce, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Economics of War 14 3 3 Yes 2 60
U. of Cincinnati, Col. of Engin. & Commerce, Cincinnati, Ohio. Probs. of War and Reconstruction 14 3 3 Yes 2 60

Claremont Col., Claremont, Cal.

America at War: Econ. Org. 6 10 5 Yes 4
Claremont Col., Claremont, Cal. War and Economics 15 3 5 Yes

4

Clark U., Worcester, Mass.

Economics of War 6 5 2 Yes 1 2C
Clemson Col., Clemson, S.C. Economics of War 16 3 3 Yes 1 32

2C

Dartmouth Col., Tech. School of Bus. Admin. Hanover, N.H.

Econ. Prob. of War 13 3 3 Yes 3 100 3C
U. of Detroit, Col. Of Commerce & Fin., Detroit, Mich. Economics of War 17 3 3 Yes 1 49

2

U. of Detroit, Col. Of Commerce & Fin., Detroit, Mich.

War Finance 6 7 3 Yes 1 2
Duke U., Durham, N.C. Economics of War 18 3 3 Yes 2 55

3

Fenn Col., School of Bus. Admin., Cleveland, Ohio.

Economics of Price Control 10 2 2 Yes 1 2C
U. of Fla., Col. of Bus. Admin. Gainesville, Fla. Economics of Total War 3 3 3

Franklin & Marshall Col., Lancaster, Pa.

Econ. History of U.S. 15 3 3 Yes 5 125
Franklin & Marshall Col., Lancaster, Pa. War Economics 15 3 3 Yes 4 110

C

U. of Ga., Athens, Ga.

Advanced Econ. Theory 8 5 5 Yes 1 8 3C
U. of Ga., Athens, Ga. Economics of War 8 5 5 Yes 2 66

2C

U. of Ga., Col. of Bus. Admin., Athens, Ga.

Econ. of Consumption 12 5 5 Yes 2 40 3C
Hamline U., St. Paul, Minn. Prins. of Economics 8 3 3 Yes 2 62

1

Harvard Grad. School of Bus. Admin., Boston, Mass.

Banking Probs. and Federal Fin. 16 3 3 Yes C
James Millikin U., Decatur, Ill. Econ. of War and Reconstruction 16 3 3 No 1 24

2C

Loyola U., Dept. of Econ., New Orleans, La.

Economics of War 16 3 3 Yes 1 25 2
Macalester Col., St. Paul, Minn. Econ Probs. of a War Economy 18 3 3 Yes

2C

U. of Md., Col. of Commerce, College Park, Md.

Econ. Institutions & War 16 3 3 Yes 2
Mass. Inst. of Technology, Dept. of Econ. & Soc. Sci., Cambridge, Mass. Economics of War 15 2 6 Yes 1 35

Mass. Inst. of Technology, Dept. of Econ. & Soc. Sci., Cambridge, Mass.

Postwar Econ. Probs. 15 2 6 Yes
Mass. Inst. of Technology, Dept. of Econ. & Soc. Sci., Cambridge, Mass. Postwar Problems 15 3 9 Yes

3C

U. of Minn., School of Bus. Admin., Minneapolis, Minn.

Finance 11 3 3 Yes 1 11 3C
U. of Minn., School of Bus. Admin., Minneapolis, Minn. Our Economic Life 11 3 3 Yes 1 125

U. of Minn., School of Bus. Admin., Minneapolis, Minn.

Public Finance 22 3 6 Yes 1 15 4C
Mont. State U., School of Bus. Admin., Missoula, Mont. War Economics 10 4 4 Yes 1

2C

N. Dak. Agri. Col., Dept. of Econ., Fargo, N.D.

War Economics 16 3 3 Yes 1 25 2C
U. of N. Dak., School of Com., Grand Forks, N.D. Economics of War 8 5 3 Yes 1 21

2C

Okla, A&M, Col., School of Com., Stillwater, Okla.

War and Post-War Econ. Problems 18 3 3 Yes 3C
U. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. War Economics 18 2 2 Yes 2 65

2C

Pomona Col., Claremont, Cal.

Econ. of War & Defense 6 5 3 Yes 1 19 2C
St. John’s U., Collegeville, Minn. Economics of War 18 3 3 Yes 1 20

2C

U. of S. Dak., School of Bus. Admin., Vermillion, S.D.

Economics of War 18 3 3 Yes 1 25 2C
U. of S. Dak., School of Bus. Admin., Vermillion, S.D. Money & Banking & War Finance 18 3 3 Yes

2C

Stanford U., Dept. of Econ., Stanford U., Cal.

American Economy in Wartime 10 5 5 Yes 2 89 2C
Stanford U., Dept. of Econ., Stanford U., Cal. War Effort 10 4 3 Yes

Stout Inst., Menomonie, Wisc.

War Economics 6 5 5 Yes 1 2C
Susquehanna U., Selinsgrove, Pa. Amer. Probs. in World Relationships 32 2 2 Yes 1 27

1

Temple U., Philadelphia, Pa.

Economic Planning 15 3 3 Yes 1 25 2C
Temple U., Philadelphia, Pa. Internat. Trade & Commerce 15 3 3 Yes 1 30

2

Transylvania Col., Econ. & Sociology Dept., Lexington, Ky.

Economics of War 18 3 3 Yes 1 18 3C
Villanova Col., Villanova, Pa. Probs. of Peace After the War 6 5 2 Yes

U. of Va., Charlottesville, Va.

Economics of War 36 3 6 Yes 1 2C
U. of Va., Charlottesville, Va. Prins. of Economics 12 3 2 Yes 2 180

1

State Col. of Wash., School of Bus. Admin., Pullman, Wash.

Econ. & Bus. Tendencies 18 3 3 Yes 1 3C
U. of Wash., Col. of Econ. & Bus., Seattle, Wash. Econ. of Natl. Defense 12 5 5 Yes 1 94

2

U. of Wash., Col. of Econ. & Bus., Seattle, Wash.

World at War 12 5 5 Yes 1
Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, Ohio. Econ. of Natl. Defense 16 4 3 Yes 1

2C

Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, Ohio.

Econ. of War and Reconstruction 15 1 ¾ 2 Yes 1 27

2 or E

*Prerequisites:

Numerals—years of college which must have been completed
C—certain courses in the same or allied subjects
E—experience in the field

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Instructors and course descriptions

SCHOOL COURSE TITLE INSTRUCTOR AND COURSE DESCRIPTION
U. of Akron, Akron, Ohio. Economics of War Jay L. O’Hara. Economic causes of war; transition from peace to war economy, fiscal and monetary problems of war economy; price control, rationing and priorities.
Albright Col., Reading, Pa. Economic Problems John C. Evans. Text supplemented by lectures, readings in economic theory for purposes of orienting the student, and current reading in the better newspapers and periodicals for correlation of current opinions.
U. of Ariz., School of Bus. & Pub. Admin. Tucson, Ariz. Economics of War E. G. Wood. An analysis of those economic factors which determine modern war; man power and materials, methods for their mobilization.
U. of Ariz., School of Bus. & Pub. Admin. Tucson, Ariz. Geography of War Areas G. Herrech. A course dealing with climatic, topographical and economic factors in war areas. Population characteristics and pertinent matters of history and government will be included, as well as a discussion of the military characteristics of the geographic background. Text material will be newspapers and magazines, and reference work in the library.
Babson Inst., School of Bus. Admin., Wellesley, Mass. War Economics James M. Matthews. Introductory analysis of economic causes of war, the economics of the war process, the post-war economic adjustment, war production, labor, wages, finance, prices, consumer control, railroads, electric power, housing, agriculture.
Brooklyn Col., Brooklyn, N.Y. Econ. of Defense & War Curwen Stoddart – The economic problems of defense in modern times; the expenditures by countries for armament and defense purposes since 1914 and the economic policies pursued in financing these expenditures. The functioning of the economy under war time controls, including the regulation of prices, production, consumption and finance, the repercussions of war upon neutral countries and the consequences of peace; with special attention to the immediate problems resulting from demobilization of war-time resources.
Brown U., Dept. of Econ., Providence, R.I. Economics of War Antonin Basch. Economic mobilization for war. Government controls over production, consumption, foreign trade, prices and wages through monetary policy, fiscal policy, price control, priorities, rationing and foreign exchange control. Economic warfare. Lessons of the first World War. Problems of post-war reconstruction.
Bucknell U., Dept. of Commerce & Finance, Lewisburg, Pa. Econ. of Modern War Rudolph Peterson. Problems created by the war in the field of production, distribution, finance, and prices and methods of meeting them.
Carleton Col., Dept. of Econ., Northfield, Minn. Economics of War D.A Brown [no course description]
U. of Cincinnati, Col. of Engin. & Commerce, Cincinnati, Ohio. Economics of War H.B. Whaling. Inflation and price controls. Fiscal and tax problems, function of the banking system in the war economy, rationing, devices for saving, conversion of peacetime to wartime economy, impact of war economic policies on post war economy.
U. of Cincinnati, Col. of Engin. & Commerce, Cincinnati, Ohio. Probs. of War and Reconstruction R.R. McGrane. How the war came to Europe. Problems of financing the war, mobilization of industrial resources, mobilization of public opinion. Problems of peace; what kind of peace does the U.S. want, what will be the position of the U.S. in the new world order?
City Col. of N.Y., Commerce Center, New York, N.Y. Price Control Regulations Henry Bund, Joseph Friedlander, Percy J. Greenberg. This laboratory and clinic course to be given by prominent authorities will provide up-to-the minute information and analysis of rulings and interpretations of orders of the Office of Price Administration. The lecturers will concern themselves with the purpose and provisions of the various regulations; individual groups of manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers will receive instruction in the computation of price ceilings for various commodities and how to obtain relief from present regulations which are oppressive; a series of laboratory exercises will be required.
Claremont Col., Claremont, Cal. America at War: Econ. Org. Arthur G. Coons [no course description]
Claremont Col., Claremont, Cal. War and Economics Walter E. Sulzbach. Emphasis on international aspects of war and economic organization.
Clark U., Worcester, Mass. Economics of War S. J. Brandenburg. A descriptive study of public economic policy in relation to war: what economic mobilization for modern war means in terms of labor, resources, civilian and military economic preparation, finance, and private and government enterprise. A study of economic problems to be faced in post war reconstruction will form a final unit of the course.
Clemson Col., Clemson, S.C. Economics of War James E. Ward. We deal with the problems of financing a war, production problems, maladjustments caused by war, post-war aspects, etc.
Dartmouth Col., Tuck School of Bus. Admin. Hanover, N.H. Econ. Prob. of War George Walter Woodworth. The chief aim of this course is to develop an understanding of how the economic resources of a nation can be most effectively marshalled for total war. First requirements are seen, then the problems of mobilization and conversion of resources. Final section is devoted to post-war problems.
U. of Detroit, Col. Of Commerce & Fin., Detroit, Mich. Economics of War Bernard F. Landuyt. An analytical survey of the economic aspects of the preparation for and conduct of war, with particular reference to the participation of the United States in World War II. Attention given to both the armed conflict and the civilian scene.
U. of Detroit, Col. Of Commerce & Fin., Detroit, Mich. War Finance Bernard F. Landuyt. A survey of the major aspects of the problem of war finance, with especial reference to the current American problem. Emphasis will be placed on the nature and significance of the problem, the principles basic to its solution, and the effectuation of these principles.
Duke U., Durham, N.C. Economics of War Earl J. Hamilton and H. E. von Beckerath [no course description]
Fenn Col., School of Bus. Admin., Cleveland, Ohio. Economics of Price Control A. O. Berger. A study of price control in normal times by (a) competition and (b) regulation under monopoly conditions, such as utilities. Price control under conditions of war: the reasons for it, the determination of ceilings, the economic implications.
U. of Fla., Col. of Bus. Admin. Gainesville, Fla. Economics of Total War Walter J. Matherly [no course description]
Franklin & Marshall Col., Lancaster, Pa. Econ. History of U.S. Harold Fischer and Noel P. Laird. A study of the factors in the economic development of the United States, with special attention to these factors as they influenced America’s rise to the rank of a world power. A history of the evolution of the economic life of the American people. Emphasis on problems involved in our adjustments to a war economy.
Franklin & Marshall Col., Lancaster, Pa. War Economics Noel P. Laird. A careful analysis of such economic problems as agriculture, consumers’ needs, price, banking, public finance, labor, transportation, and unemployment. Special attention will be given to war economy with emphasis on priorities, rationing, and government control over production, distribution, consumption, finance and other economic activities. A survey of the economic problems created by the war.
U. of Ga., Athens, Ga. Advanced Econ. Theory E. C. Griffith. The course deals with monopolistic competition and the problems of government regulation of prices; special emphasis is given to specific industries such as the iron and steel industry. Special attention will be given in 1942 to government control of inflation, rationing, and antitrust policy in a period of war.
U. of Ga., Athens, Ga. Economics of War Robert T. Segrest. Economic problems and policies of nations in wartime. Post-war problems with special emphasis on the United States.
U. of Ga., Col. of Bus. Admin., Athens, Ga. Econ. of Consumption John W. Jenkins. National economy from the interests of the consumer, before the war, now and in the post-war world.
Hamline U., St. Paul, Minn. Prins. of Economics C. B. Kuhlmann. War economics is given as the last 8 weeks of the course in principles of economics.
Harvard Grad. School of Bus. Admin., Boston, Mass. Banking Problems and Federal Finance Ebersole and D.T. Smith. Financing of the Federal Treasury during the present war is the over-shadowing concern of business, finance, and banking. Current activities of the Treasury are studied in relation to fiscal policy, and bank operations. Indispensable background is covered in two parts: bank portfolios and bank relations, with emphasis upon government relations arising out of government lending corporations, financing Federal deficits by bond issues sold to banks or to the public, and central bank and money management policies of the Treasury and Federal Reserve system.
James Millikin U., Decatur, Ill. Econ. of War and Reconstruction M. E. Robinson. An analysis of the fundamental framework of the war economy. Problems of finance, population, prices, civilian production, and procurement as affected by war. Study of our efforts to convert and produce for war in contrast to those of other nations. Brief study of the economic structure and problems of a post-war economy. Much of the course will be devoted to a study of sources, propaganda, and war annals.
Loyola U., Dept. of Econ., New Orleans, La. Economics of War John Connor. Economic factors in war: strategic materials; man power; production and consumption controls; price regulations; financing; post-war problems, etc.
Macalester Col., St. Paul, Minn. Econ Probs. of a War Economy Forrest A. Young. Modern warfare and the economic system; economic warfare; critical and strategic raw materials; maximizing production; foreign trade and shipping; labor and wage policies; housing difficulties; priorities, allocations, rationing and demand controls; direct and indirect price control and bases of price fixing; fiscal policy and war financing; problems of postwar readjustment.
U. of Md., Col. of Commerce, College Park, Md. Econ. Institutions & War G. A. Costanzo. An analysis of the Economic causes and problems of war. Industrial mobilization; theory and techniques of price control; banking and credit control; war finance; international trade and foreign exchange controls; economic sanctions and autarchy; and the problems of readjustment in a post-war economy.
Mass. Inst. of Technology, Dept. of Econ. & Soc. Sci., Cambridge, Mass. Economics of War Ralph E. Freeman. A study of the economic changes resulting from the adjustment of industry to the demands of War, and the impact of these changes on business stability, standards of living and methods of social control.
Mass. Inst. of Technology, Dept. of Econ. & Soc. Sci., Cambridge, Mass. Postwar Econ. Probs. Richard M. Bissell. A study of the economic difficulties that are likely to arise after the war, and of policies that may be adopted to cope with them.
Mass. Inst. of Technology, Dept. of Econ. & Soc. Sci., Cambridge, Mass. Postwar Problems Richard M. Bissell. A study of the economic problems involved in maintaining national income and employment under the conditions that are likely to prevail after the war.
U. of Minn., School of Bus. Admin., Minneapolis, Minn. Finance J. Warren Stehman. Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Commodity Credit Corporation, Federal Housing Administration Title VI, governmental financial policies to control prices, war finance and its effects upon business policy and upon investments. Probably fifty percent of the course dealt with financial material related directly to the war effort and fifty percent not so related.
U. of Minn., School of Bus. Admin., Minneapolis, Minn. Our Economic Life Helen G. Canoyer. Although the title of the course was not changed, due to an action of the advisory committee of General College, the committee did agree to a change in the emphasis of the course to war economics.
U. of Minn., School of Bus. Admin., Minneapolis, Minn. Public Finance Roy G. Blakey.  Each meeting was a discussion led by one of the members of the seminar. All were assigned certain basic readings and each was required to write a term paper or thesis on a phase of the subject selected by him in consultation with the instructor.
Mont. State U., School of Bus. Admin., Missoula, Mont. War Economics Roy J. W. Ely. The course is a study of the various factors that appear to lead to war; pre-war preparations; an analysis of war economy; and post-war adjustments.
N. Dak. Agri. Col., Dept. of Econ., Fargo, N.D. War Economics Paul E. Zerby.  Causes of war; economic means of warfare; economic problems and adjustments of post-war period; money and banking, public finance, labor, international economic policies, government and business.
U. of N. Dak., School of Com., Grand Forks, N.D. Economics of War S. Hagen. The course covers the steps by which a peace economy is transferred into a war economy. The controls instituted by the government to direct economic activity during the war period are studied and compared with peace time controls. Special attention is given to such topics as priorities, price-ceilings, war finance, labor management, lend-lease, and post-war problems.
Okla, A&M, Col., School of Com., Stillwater, Okla. War and Post-War Econ. Problems R. H. Baugh. An analysis of the impact of war on economic arrangements and processes; deals with such problems as the conversion of industry to war production, war-time labor issues, inflation, financing the war, rationing, conversion of war production to peace-time production, post-war employment, and international trade from the war.
U. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pa. War Economics M. K. McKay. Emphasis is given to the problems emerging in the transition from peace to war. Special consideration is directed to war production, the role of the consumer and the various regulatory measures introduced by the government. Finally, post-war problems were viewed.
Pomona Col., Claremont, Cal. Econ. of War & Defense Kenneth Duncan. The economic problems and policies of a nation at war. Attention, is given to the economic forces contributing to war and to the strategy of international markets, materials, and shipping. The shift to a war economy and the war-time control over production, labor, prices, and consumer demand. War finance and inflation. Problems of demobilization and post-war economic planning.
St. John’s U., Collegeville, Minn. Economics of War Linus Schieffer. This course is designed to examine the repercussions upon the economy of the nation of a total war effort such as modern war entails. It investigates the problem of conversion of plant and resources, the dangers of inflation, the influence of strategic materials. It likewise spends some time discussing the postwar consequences of such a wholesale conversion of the national economy.
U. of S. Dak., School of Bus. Admin., Vermillion, S.D. Economics of War Claude J. Whitlow. Economic causes of war; nature of total war; man-power regulation and total war; war effort in real terms; price system under impact of war; labor problems in war time; war-time control of production and consumption; public finance and war; international relations during and after a period of war; post-war economic problems.
U. of S. Dak., School of Bus. Admin., Vermillion, S.D. Money & Banking & War Finance E. S. Sparks [no course description]
Stanford U., Dept. of Econ., Stanford U., Cal. American Economy in Wartime B. F. Haley, K. Brandt, W. S. Hopkins. War economics of raw materials, labor resources and policy in the war economy; transportation in World Wars I and II; business organization and policy; controls in the war economy, international aspects of the war effort; consumption and living standards in the war economy.
Stanford U., Dept. of Econ., Stanford U., Cal War Effort Staff. Lectures in all phases of the national war effort.
Stout Inst., Menomonie, Wisc. War Economics A. Stephen Stephan. The change from peace-time to war-time economy and the problems involved. The war and its effect on industry and consumers. Problems of war production, financing the war, price control, economic regulations and civilian morale.
Susquehanna U., Selinsgrove, Pa. Amer. Probs. in World Relationships W. A. Russ, H. A. Heath. A survey of the problems confronting the United States in her present day relationships with Europe, the Far East, and Latin America. These problems will be discussed, from the standpoint of relationships in economics, science, history and government. The second semester surveyed the economic relationships of war.
Temple U., Philadelphia, Pa. Economic Planning Russell H. Mack. Examination of the chief problems of production, pricing, and distribution arising under capitalism and planned economy. Special emphasis on the problems and techniques of war-time price control and rationing.
Temple U., Philadelphia, Pa. Internat. Trade & Commerce Grover A. J. Noetzel. The fundamental principles of international commerce. Special emphasis throughout upon the disorganizing effects of the present war upon world commerce. Proposed plans of reconstruction of post-war trade.
Transylvania Col., Econ. & Sociology Dept., Lexington, Ky. Economics of War W. Scott Hall. Background of nature and causes of war, economic factors in the causation, preparation for, and waging of war, economic effects of war. Emphasis on term paper.
Villanova Col., Villanova, Pa. Probs. of Peace After the War Edward J. McCarthy. An historical survey of the various efforts to organize states for economic and political purposes. Religious, social, economic and political problems facing nations at war are considered together with the several plans for post-war organization now being offered.
U. of Va., Charlottesville, Va. Economics of War David McC. Wright. Production for war, labor supply, price control, war finance, changes in the structure of the economy, post-war reconstruction, etc.
U. of Va., Charlottesville, Va. Prins. of Economics Tipton R. Snavely, D. Clark Hyde [no course description]
State Col. of Wash., School of Bus. Admin., Pullman, Wash. Econ. & Bus. Tendencies [No instructor named] Basic tendencies, in economic and business ideas and institutions. The effect of the war on economic change and the environment of business enterprise. The objectives and policies of government. Problems of post-war institutional adjustments.
U. of Wash., Col. of Econ. & Bus., Seattle, Wash. Econ. of Natl. Defense Harold G. Moulton and Howard H. Preston. Analysis of the problems arising from our national defense program, including organization of production, procurement of materials, financing industrial expansion, monetary issues, price control methods, labor relations, international exchange, fiscal policy of the government.
U. of Wash., Col. of Econ. & Bus., Seattle, Wash. World at War Staff. Factual information on the background of the present war, the ideological conflict; the fundamentals of military and naval strategy, economics and war, and the essentials of planning for peace.
Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, Ohio. Econ. of Natl. Defense Russell Weisman. The problems of industrial mobilization. Priorities, allocations, and price control. Methods of financing – taxation, public borrowing, fiat money and credit. Economic policies of the leading nations in World War I and II.
Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, Ohio. Econ. of War and Reconstruction Warren A. Roberts. An analysis of the steps involved in the conversion to war effort, and the effects upon business. An examination of the economic program of Germany and England and a comparison of policies of labor representation, of personnel conversion from normal occupations, of stages of development of war finance, and of uses of compulsory loans. A brief consideration of post-war problems.

 

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Bibliography
Texts used in War Courses Offered by Collegiate Schools of Business and Departments of Economics

ECONOMICS OF WAR

Atkins, W. E. (Editor). Economic Behavior. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1931, 1079 p., $8.50.

Backman, Jules. Wartime Price Control and the Retail Trade. National Retail Dry Goods Association, New York, 1910, 48 p., $.10.

Baruch, Bernard M. American Industry in the War. Prentice-Hall, Inc. New York, 1941498 p., $3.75.

Boulding, Kenneth Ewart. Economic Analysis. Harper and Bros., New York, 1941, 809 p., $4.25.

Brown University Economists, A. C. Neal (Editor). Introduction to War Economics. Richard D. Irwin, Inc., Chicago, 1942, $1.25.

Burnham, James. Managerial Revolution. John Day Company, Inc., New York, 1941, 285 p., $2.50.

Chamberlin, Edward. Theory of Monopolistic Competition. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1938, 241 p., $2.50.

Condliffe, John Bell. The Reconstruction of World Trade; A Survey of Industrial Economic Relations. W. W. Norton, Inc., New York, 1940, 427 p., $3.75.

Fairchild, F. R.; Furniss, E. S. and Buck, N. S. Economics. Macmillan Co., New York, 1940, 828 p., $3.00.

Faulkner, Harold Underwood. Economic History of the United States. Macmillan Co., New York, 1937, 319 p., $.80.

Fraser, Cecil E. and Teele, Stanley F. Industry Goes to War; Readings on American Industrial Rearmament. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1941, 123 p., $1.50.

Hardy, C. O. Wartime Control of Prices. Brookings Institution, Washington, D. C., 1940, 216 p., $1.00.

Harris, Seymour E. Economics of American Defense. W. W. Norton and Company, Inc., New York, 1941, 350 p., $3.50.

Lorwin, Louis L. Economic Consequences of Second World War. Random House, New York, 1941, 510 p., $3.00.

Meade, J. E.; and Hitch, C. J. Introduction to Economic Analysis and Policy. Oxford University Press, New York, 1938, 428 p., $2.50. Mendershausen, Horst. Economics of War. Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York, 1940, 314 p., $2.75.

Nelson, Saul and Keim, Walter G. Price Behavior and Business Policy (T.N.E.C. Monograph No. 1) U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1940, 419 p., $.45.

Pigou, A. C. The Political Economy of War. MacMillan and Company, London, 1921, 251 p., $3.25.

Robbins, Lionel Charles. Economic Causes of War. Macmillan Co., New York, 1939, 124 p., $1.35.

Robinson, Joan. The Economics of Imperfect Competition. Macmillan and Co., London, 1934, 352 p., $4.50.

Spiegel, Henry William. Economics of Total War. D. Appleton-Century Co., New York, 1942, 410 p., $3.00.

Stein, Emanuel and Backman, Jules. War Economics. Farrar and Rinehart, Inc., New York, 1942, 501 p., $3.00.

Steiner, George A. and Associates. Economic Problems of War. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 1942, 676 p., $3.50.

Steiner, W. H. Economics of War. Farrar and Rinehart, Inc., New York, 1942, 250 p., $3.00.

Vaile, Roland Snow; and Canoyer, Helen G. Income and Consumption. H. Holt and Co., New York, 1938, 394 p., $2.25.

Waller, Willard Walter (Editor). War in the Twentieth Century. Random House, Inc., New York, 1940, 572 p., $3.00.

Zimmermann, Erich W. World Resources and Industries; A Functional Appraisal of the Availability of Agricultural and Industrial Resources. Harper and Bros., New York, 1934, 842 p., $4.00.

 

Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. Supplementary Report on War Courses offered by Collegiate Schools of Business and Departments of Economics. Washington, D.C.: August 1942. Pages 11-13, 20-25, 45-89, 94-96.

Image Source: U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. Buy War Bonds” (Uncle Sam). Wikimedia.

Categories
Economists Stanford

History of Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. From Report to Ford Foundation, 1954

Having most recently posted brief histories of the behavioral sciences as reported by Harvard and Chicago to a larger Ford Foundation Project that was completed 1953-4, I simply couldn’t resist going the extra mile to add the corresponding chapter for Stanford University’s contribution to the project here. I have added boldface to highlight economics-specific information for those of you historians of economics in a hurry.

________________________________

[p. 6]

Chapter 3
The Development of the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford

I. PRIOR TO THE SECOND WORLD WAR

A. Teaching. When instruction at the University began, in 1891, there were at Stanford only three departments—History, Psychology, and Economics and Social Science—embracing the field of the behavioral sciences. The last of these had three divisions: I. Political Economy, Statistics and Finance; II. Sociology; and III. Political Science. Thus all the present behavioral science departments except Journalism were present in some form or other from the very start. The Economics Department retained its conglomerate character as the haven of incipient departments until the Second World War.

In the next year, 1892, there were added two new departments — Education and Law — which for a period of years were closely related to the original three. The Department of Law was not conceived on a merely vocational basis, but listed among its “ultimate aims” the furnishing of “such instruction in the elementary principles of Anglo-American law as may properly form a part of the education of an American citizen”; the furnishing of “such instruction in commercial law as may be adapted to the needs of those who intend to become merchants, bankers, brokers, etc. or to follow other lines of business”; the providing “for students intending to enter the public service, adequate instruction in public and international law”; and the furnishing “to students of political and social science, training in special branches of law related to such subjects”.1 The Department of Education in its very first year listed at least one course, “Studies on Children”, that was [p. 7] substantially a psychology course, and over the many succeeding years such courses were increased in number and scope as the Department developed into a School.

The “charter members” of the Stanford faculty in the behavioral sciences included at least two eminent figures. Andrew Dickson White, who had been President of Cornell from 1866-1885 and Minister to Germany from 1879-1881, was the first Professor of History. His service at Stanford was interrupted from 1892-1894 while he was President Cleveland’s Minister to Russia and in 1896 while he served on the Venezuelan Commission. The first Professor of Law was Benjamin Harrison, who came to his chair at Stanford immediately on taking his leave of the Presidency of the United States in 1893. The original Professor of Psychology, Frank Angell, continued in his chair until 1921 and was the last of the “charter” faculty in the behavioral sciences to retire. Amos Griswold Warner, first Professor of Economics, had been Superintendent of Charities in Washington, D. C. The stamp of his influence was reflected in the curriculum for most of the years following until the Second World War, particularly in the emphasis on social institutions, on reform and remedial legislation, and on charities and humanitarianism.

Stanford was coeducational from the start; in fact, the first person awarded the Ph.D. degree in the behavioral sciences was a woman, Mary Roberts Smith, who received her degree in Sociology in the year 1896. The first doctorate in any field had been awarded two years before in Geology. In the very first academic year, nine behavioral science degrees were awarded, 8 in History and 1 in Economics and Social Science. There were 63 student majors in the behavioral sciences that year—1 in Psychology, 49 in History, and 13 in Economics and Social Science. At the second commencement 4 students of History and 1 in Economics and Social Science were granted master’s degrees, the first in the departments’ history. The first class to complete four years’ residence, 1894-95, graduated 31 in behavioral sciences: [p. 8] 20 A.B.’s and 1 M.A. in History, 6 A.B.’s in Economics and Social Science, and 4 A.B.’s in Law.

The curriculum of the first year, especially in History and in Economics and Social Science, reflected the major concerns and horizons of that age. The Psychology Department offered only two courses, Elementary and Advanced Psychology. The History Department offered courses in Greek, Roman, and Medieval History, the History of the Christian Church, of the English Constitution, of the French Revolution, of the Pacific Slope, and American Political History — a historical diet confined largely to the history of Western Europe and Anglo-America. The History Department listed three courses for graduate students with this explanation: “The courses offered to graduate students are especially designed to afford a training in methods of historical research, through the use of original materials. The results of such investigations are presented in the seminary, to which these courses are tributary. No attempt, however, is made sharply to separate the undergraduate from the graduate department. Graduates will often find it to their advantage to take courses designated for undergraduates; while undergraduates with adequate preparation may, by invitation of the professor, be admitted to courses primarily designed for graduates.”2 The problem of graduate courses has, it can be seen, been with us from the beginning. The fuzziness of disciplinary lines is reflected in the first list of courses in the Department of Economics and Social Science. As a matter of interest it is reproduced here.

  1. Principles of Political Economy. Elementary course.
  2. Advanced Economic Theory: Bimetallism, Railway Transportation, etc.
  3. A History of Tariff Legislation in the United States.
  4. Taxation and Finance.
  5. Statistics: History, Theory, and Technique.
  6. [p. 9] Social Science: with special reference to Public Charities and the Management of Penal Institutions.
  7. A Study of Industrial Corporations.
  8. A History of Agriculture and Prices.
  9. Commercial Relations of the United States.
  10. History of Economic Theories.
  11. Civil Service Reform in England and the United States.
  12. Sociology
  13. Land and Land Tenure. The Australian System of Registration.
  14. Method in Domestic Consumption.
  15. Communism and Socialism.
  16. Co-operation: Its History and its Influence.
  17. A History of Industry, including Trade Unions, Guilds, Factory Systems, Strikes, Arbitration, Labor Organizations, etc.
  18. Municipal Administration: the Natural Monopolies, Police, Taxation, etc.
  19. Railroad Management: A Course offered in cooperation with the Engineering Department.
  20. City and State Politics.
  21. A History of Estates and Land Tenure in California.
  22. Recent Social Reform.

 

There were many changes during the University’s first fifty years. One of the early changes occurred in 1899 in the Department of Law. In that year the departmental objective was redefined: “This Department offers such courses in Law as are usually given in professional law schools.”3 in that year a three-year program leading to the Bachelor of Laws degree was inaugurated, and the A.B. in law was soon thereafter abandoned.

The changing names of the Department originally called Economics and Social Science reflect its changes in personnel and curriculum. Sociology courses waxed and waned several times in its history. Political Science ran a more even course, but it also virtually disappeared in the years from 1902 until 1908. The following table summarizes the development of this department.

Department Title:   Years

Department of Economics and Social Science:   1891-1894
Department of Economics and Sociology:   1895-1901
Department of Economics and Social Science:   1902-1911
[p. 10]
Department of Economics:   1912-1914
Department of Economics and Political Science:   1915-1918
Department of Economics:   1919 – date
Department of Political Science:   1919 – date
Division of Sociology, Department of Economics:   1926 through 1940

While the Department of Psychology expanded very slowly in its first thirty years under Professor Angell, the psychology offering in the Department of Education4 flourished in the earlier years (1897-1903) under Professor Edwin Diller Starbuck and later (1910-1921) under Professor Lewis Madison Terman. On Professor Angell’s retirement in 1921, President Wilbur designated Professor Terman head of the Department of Psychology, after which date the department grew rapidly in personnel, in curriculum, and in enrollment. Whereas in the preceding years the psychology curriculum in the Department of Education had rivaled that of the department proper in every respect, thereafter the Psychology Department was dominant.

One of the present behavioral sciences originated at Stanford in the humanities curriculum. In 1908 the Department of English Literature and Rhetoric announced that “students preparing for journalism may substitute for the more advanced courses in literature, courses in Advanced Composition, History, Economics and Social Science.”5 In 1910 Everett Wallace Smith gave a course in News Writing in this department. In 1917 Journalism became a sub-division of the Department of English. It became the Division of Journalism in 1920, and in 1924 the Division was transferred from the Department of English to the jurisdiction of the newly organized School of Social Sciences.6

[p. 11] In the years following upon the First World War there were two major additions to the behavioral science resources of Stanford, both deriving from the interests and activities of her most celebrated alumnus, Herbert Hoover. These were, of course, the Food Research Institute established in 1921 and the Hoover War Library established in 1924. “The Food Research Institute is organized under a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York for the purpose of studying the production, distribution, and consumption of food,” declared the Annual Register of 1922. “The Hoover War Library is a collection of materials for research in the causes, conduct, and results of the Great War, covering also the period of reconstruction since the end of the war. These materials are of all kinds and from all the nations of the world, whether belligerent or neutral, but special efforts have been made to secure those which will be useful in research along the lines of non-military history and on social, economic, and governmental problems.”7

There was also expansion in this post-war period in the direction of a required course for freshmen not intent upon a behavioral science major. In 1923, Professor Edgar Eugene Robinson of the History Department was made director of an interdisciplinary program in Citizenship. It consisted of “a general introductory course required of all students in their first year. Designed to present the salient features in the bases and background of present-day society; to consider the place of education in modern life and the political equipment of the citizen; and to examine in detail the fundamental political, social, and economic problems of the American people.”8 Lectures were given by professors in such fields as History, Geology, Law, Philosophy, Political Science, Mechanical Engineering, Education, and Psychology. These were supplemented by smaller discussion groups. In 1935 [p. 12] Citizenship gave way to the History of Western Civilization under the jurisdiction of the Department of History, by this time headed by Professor Robinson, as the course required of all freshmen. It retained the technique of combining lectures with discussion sessions.

One may perhaps summarize the growth of the faculty over the University’s first fifty years by citing some of the better-known names among them. The Department of History included such regular members as Max Farrand, Ralph Haswell Lutz, Edward Maslin Hulme, Thomas Andrew Bailey, and George Vernadsky, and such visitors as Carl Lotus Becker, Guy Stanton Ford, Ralph Henry Gabriel, Samuel Flagg Bemis, and Carlton J. H. Hayes. The Department of Psychology had Walter R. Miles, Lewis Madison Terman, Calvin B. Stone, and Ernest Hilgard as members, and Karl Buhler, Albert Edward Michotte, Kurt Lewin, and Edwin G. Boring as visitors. The Economics Department claimed among its number Thorstein Veblen, Alvin Saunders Johnson, Harley Leist Lutz, Bernard Francis Haley, Joseph Stancliffe Davis, and Theodore Harding Boggs, and among its visitors Frank Albert Fetter, John Maurice Clark, Charles Jesse Bullock, Alvin Harvey Hansen, Jacob Viner, and Fritz Machlup. The political scientists included such permanent professors as Westel Woodbury Willoughby, Burt Estes Howard, Victor J. West, Edward Angell Cottrell, Thomas Swain Barclay, Hugh McDowall Clokie, and Charles Fairman, and such guests as James Wilford Garner, Arthur N. Holcombe, Francis William Coker, Edward Samuel Corwin, Harold Hance Sprout, Arthur W. MacMahon, Henry Russell Spencer, Peter H. Odegard, William Anderson, Clyde Eagleton, James Kerr Pollock, and Leonard Dupee White.9 Among the sociologists there were Charles N. Reynolds and Richard LaPiere. From 1907 to 1914 George H. Sabine was a member of the Department of Philosophy.

The office of Executive Head of the Department was first mentioned in the Annual Register of 1913-1914. It was early established that the Stanford [p.13] policy was to have a permanent department head rather than a rotating one, except in the Food Research Institute. The Department of Economics had two permanent heads in the period from the beginning of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War, Murray Shipley Wildman (1915-1930) and Bernard Francis Haley (from 1931). History had four chairmen: Edward Benjamin Krehbiel (1913-1914), Ephraim Douglas Adams (1914-1922), Payson Jackson Treat (1922-1930), and Edgar Eugene Robinson (from 1930). Psychology had two chairmen: Frank Angell (1913-1922) and Lewis Madison Terman (from 1922). Political Science also had two: Victor J. West (1919-1927) and Edwin Angell Cottrell (from 1927). The Food Research Institute had three joint directors, who rotated the executive directorship among them – Alonzo Engelbert Taylor, Carl Lucas Alsberg, and Joseph Stancliffe Davis. In 1942 the present director, Merrill Kelley Bennett became executive director. There were two chairmen of the Hoover War Library: Ephraim Douglass Adams (1923-1924) and Ralph Haswell Lutz (from 1924), as there were in the School of Social Sciences—Murray Shipley Wildman (1923-1930) and Edwin Angell Cottrell (from 1930)–and in the Department of Journalism— Everett Wallace Smith (1927-1933) and Chilton Rowlette Bush (from 1933).

Until the year 1908-1909 the History Department had the greatest enrollment of student majors. In that year the Economics Department overtook History and with the exception of a few years immediately following has remained the largest department in terms of total enrollment in the behavioral sciences area. The History Department, however, continued to have the greatest enrollment of graduate students throughout this period. From the beginning, the Psychology Department had the smallest enrollment in the behavioral sciences area. When the Political Science Department was established in 1919, it immediately exceeded the Psychology Department in enrollment. From the year 1922 on—the first of Professor Terman’s chairmanship—the number of graduate students was higher [p. 14] in proportion to undergraduates in the Psychology Department than in any other behavioral science department.

The table which follows summarizes the degrees granted by the several behavioral science departments in the first fifty years of Stanford’s history, and in the case of Ph.D.’s through the academic year 1952-1953.

A.B.’s M.A.’s Ph.D.’s
 

Depart-ment

Prior 1920 1921-1940 Prior 1920 1921-1940 Prior 1920 1921-1940 1941-1953
Econo-mics 600 2998 34 82 4 41 14
History 708 917 90 223 2 55 63
Journal-ism 8 317 0 20 0 0 0
Food Research 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
Inter-national Relations 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
Political Science 7 1000 1 138 0 33 26
Psycho-logy 31 303 1 70 1 49 64
Sociology & Anthro-pology * 159 * 22 1 12 9
Social Sciences 0 1161 0 9 0 1 0

*Prior to 1928, Sociology A.B.’s and M.A.’s were included as Economics Degrees.

It is noteworthy that the number of A.B.’s in Psychology increased ten times in the inter-war years as compared with the first thirty years, and the A.B.’s in Economics six times in the same period, in spite of the fact that in the later period such new departments and programs as Political Science, Sociology, and Social Sciences siphoned off elements among the students previously included under Economics. Growth in terms of the number of advanced degrees awarded is similarly reflected in comparing the two periods—with the single exception of the number of Ph.D.’s granted in Economics between 1941 and 1953. Whereas the average had earlier been [p. 15] about two Economics Ph.D.’s a year, in the more recent period it has declined to slightly more than one per year.

In all the fields there has been a great increase in the number of courses given. In the inter-war years the departments began to classify their course offerings both as to level of complexity and as to subject matter. The establishment of the lower division and the increase in the size of the faculty were among the factors leading to this change. It is also possible to detect changes in emphasis in the course offerings of the departments over the years, reflecting both the development of the subject matter of the several fields and the shifting interests of individual faculty members.

In the field of psychology, for example, in the first thirty years the courses primarily bore such all-embracing titles as Elementary, Advanced, Experimental, Applied, Systematic, Comparative, and Social Psychology and Psychological Literature. Child psychology and testing were offered in the School of Education. After the First World War, statistics, physiology, clinical psychology, child psychology, and testing, personality measurement, and vocational guidance were emphasized in the curriculum.

Throughout the first fifty years of Stanford’s history the economics curriculum was dominated by courses on economic institutions as opposed to economic theory. Courses on railroads, corporation finance, money and banking, economic history, labor legislation, accounting, insurance, tax procedure and the like comprised the major part of the offering. Secretarial training was also included in the economics curriculum. It is apparent that the primary objective of this department was to afford apprenticeship to a business career. In the later years of this period, however, there was an increase in the offering of theoretical [p. 16] courses such as capital and income, production economics, mathematical economics, value and distribution, and the history of economic thought.

Perhaps the most striking changes in emphasis over the years occurred in the history curriculum. The early emphasis on Rome, the Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance, and British constitutional history was supplemented in the first decade of the century by courses in International Law, Diplomatic History of the United States, and the Westward Movement in the United States, and such courses in the history of the Far East as the History of Australasia, the Philippines, and Tropical Colonization in the Far East. In 1911 there were added a course on Spain and Spanish America and one on international conciliation, and in 1913 the first courses in Japanese history. After the war there appeared courses in the Slavic nationalities, Russia, the Baltic States, the World War, and the Paris Peace Conference. As the number of courses on modern Europe, the history of the United States, Latin America and the Far East increased, Greek and Roman history were taken over by the Classics Department; international law and conciliation were taken over by the Department of Political Science and the School of Law; and the Middle Ages and the History of the Christian Church assumed-a lesser role.

When political science was still a part of the Economics Department, such courses as the theory of the state, methods of legislating, administration of states, cities, and towns, practical politics, modern federal government, and political theory were offered. The History Department, as has been noted, offered courses in the international field. When the Department of Political Science was organized after the war, the course offering fell into the following general areas: elementary courses in American government and state and local government, comparative government, political theory, political parties, administration, relation of [p. 17] government and industry, and international relations. As early as 1924 there was a course in quantitative measurements in public administration, and in the following year there was a course in political statistics. In 1928 a course in public law was offered for the first time. With the exception of the statistical courses, these general areas have continued to be the principal ones in the political science curriculum.

Throughout the first fifty years of the University’s history, the sociology curriculum was combined with Economics. There is, however, evidence of the development of the subject matter during this period. In the nineties there were courses in static and dynamic sociology (using as texts Herbert Spencer and Lester F. Ward), in social pathology, charities and corrections, penology, and even statistics and sociology. Static and dynamic sociology disappeared, but charities, causes of poverty, and courses of that type persisted into the war years. After the war the character of the courses changed. Problems of Poverty, of Child Welfare, Crime as a Social Problem, and Care of Dependents were courses given in the early twenties. Later, courses in population, rural society, social organization, and sociological theory were added to the curriculum, and from this developed an emphasis that persisted until the Second World War. In 1937 a course in Cultural Anthropology was included in the sociology offering, marking the beginning of anthropological instruction.

We have already noted the beginnings of Journalism in the English Department, with one course in Newswriting in 1910 supplemented in 1912 by one in Current Newspapers. By 1916 there were eight courses covering newswriting, analysis, reporting, editing, management and advertising. In 1920, as we have seen, Journalism was recognized as a Division of English and, in 1925, of the School of Social Sciences. From this time the curriculum continued to grow—with courses in geographical, [p. 18] sociological and legal aspects of journalism, techniques of propaganda and investigative methods in journalism.

From its inception the Food Research Institute offered a course in Food Research Problems. In 1934 a course for upper division students in The World’s Food was added, and in 1940 there was a considerable increase in the number of courses offered, including Consumption Economics, Commodity Prices, American Agricultural Policy, Foreign Agricultural Policy, and Agriculture and the Business Cycle.

In 1931 the Hoover Library offered a course in Problems of Research. By 1937 this had been expanded to include directed research in such special fields as the World War and Reconstruction, Austria-Hungary, the Bolshevik Party and the Third International, Soviet Policies and the Civil War, Housing in the United States, History of International Relations since 1914, European Totalitarianism, and the German Revolution, 1918-1919.

 

B. Research Institutes and Grants. The establishment of the Hoover War Library just after the First World War inaugurated the first major research development in the behavioral sciences at Stanford. The Annual Report of the President for 1920 notes that:

The Hoover War Library has grown steadily during the year through gifts and purchases. Professor E. D. Adams and Professor Ralph Lutz have been actively engaged in assembling and classifying this notable collection. Several students have already entered the University in order to do research work with the help of this collection and it is inevitable that there will be a considerable increase in the number of such students from year to year.10

In the following year the plans for establishing the Food Research Institute were announced.

[p. 19] During the year the final plans for the organization of the Food Research Institute of Stanford University have been consummated. The general terms of this gift are as follows: A contract was drawn up between Stanford and the Carnegie Corporation of New York in which the University agreed to set up the research organization ‘to study the problems of the production, distribution and consumption of foodstuffs’, to appoint 3 scientists as Directors who shall determine the research pursuits and be Professors with teaching a secondary aspect of their duties, appoint a 7 man Advisory Committee, furnish housing etc. free, and disburse the money.11

The Corporation agreed to supply $54,000 from July 1, 1921, to June 30, 1922; $66,000 from July 1, 1922, to June 30, 1923; and $73,000 annually for the next eight years. Two years before the expiration of the contract a conference would be held to determine the Institute’s future status.

The Annual Report12 went on to state that

Dr. Alonzo E.Taylor, Dr. Carl L. Alsberg, and Dr. Joseph S. Davis have been appointed as Directors of the Institute. The Advisory Committee is made up as follows: Mr. Herbert Hoover, Mr. A. R. Howard, of the American Farm Bureau; Dr. John C. Merriam, President of the Carnegie Institution of Washington; Mr. George C. Roeding, Mr. Julius Barnes, President William M. Jardine, of the Kansas State Agricultural College; President of the Carnegie Corporation, President of Stanford University. One of the original buildings in the Inner Quadrangle, formerly occupied by the Department of German, has been set aside for the use of the Directors. The Hoover War Library, which formed the main center of attraction for the Food Research Institute, is being assembled on one floor of the stacks of the new Library with an adjacent special reading room for the use of the members of the Food Research Institute and faculty and students of the Departments of History and Economics. The Food Research Institute constitutes one of the most notable opportunities for research of a wide scope that has come to any university in America within recent years.

In 1924, the specific plans for the Hoover War Library were announced.13

[p. 20] The Hoover War Library is a separate gift and has special endowment funds for the maintenance of certain of its features. It is under the general administration of the University Librarian.

In order to make it possible to:

a. secure acquisitions in the many different fields touched upon by the Library,
b. care for the interests of graduate students and others using the facilities of the Library, and
c. determine upon the lines of development,

Directors of the Hoover War Library are to be appointed with a relationship to the Library similar to that of a departmental faculty …

Many additions have been made to the collection during the course of the year. Mr. Hoover has increased his personal gifts until they now total about $90,000 in cash expended. The Directors of the library are making every reasonable effort to make it one of the great war collections of the world.

When the time came for renegotiation of the original contract of the Food Research Institute, the Carnegie Corporation acted by granting $750,000 in 1931 to provide a permanent endowment. In the brochure of the Institute describing its activities and publications14 its financial history is described as follows:

The [Carnegie] Corporation guaranteed funds for a period of ten years, while Stanford University undertook to provide quarters and facilities for the Institute and accorded it departmental status. Financial support is at present derived jointly from endowment granted by Carnegie Corporation to Stanford University in continuing support of the Institute, from University appropriations, and from short-term grants provided by foundations and other private organizations.

In 1939, the plans for building the Hoover Library building were announced

For some years we have been accumulating funds for the construction of the Hoover Library Building. With the original funds, the gift of $50,000 from Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the $300,000 from the Belgian- American Educational Foundation, Inc.,in hand, the university architects prepared plans for a monumental structure… It is anticipated that the building will be completed in 1940.15

[p. 21] With the completion of this building the two principal research facilities of Stanford’s first fifty years, and, indeed, in the lifetime of the University were solidly established.

The major grants for behavioral science research in the years prior to the Second World War, aside from those for the Hoover Library and the Food Research Institute, were the Laura Spellman Fund of the Rockefeller Foundation, which amounted to $454,838.49; funds to Professor Terman for his studies of intellectually gifted children—$60,673.29 from the Commonwealth Fund and $26,000 from the Carnegie Corporation; and funds for sex research granted to Professors Stone, Miles, and Terman by the Academy of Sciences, amounting to $73,298.73.

The principal publication output of the Hoover Library comprised a series of eighteen books of collected documents, memoirs, and special studies, and those of the Food Research Institute included seventeen volumes of Wheat Studies, three monographs in the Grain Economics Series, seven Fats and Oils Studies, and nine Miscellaneous Publications. The publications resulting from the Laura Spellman Fund are tabulated in Appendix I to Chapter 14.

[p. 22]

II. SINCE THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Since the Second World War the following major ohanges in the behavioral science field have occurred at Stanford:

 

A. New Departments and Agencies Established. The Department of Sociology and Anthropology was set up on an independent basis in 1948. Previously sociology had been under the Department of Economics. Anthropology teaching had begun with the arrival at Stanford in 1945 of Felix M. Keesing, who was to be appointed three years later as head of the new joint department. Other major additions to the staff in this area included Paul Wallin (appointed in 1942) in sociology and Bernard J. Siegel (appointed in 1947) and Bert A. Gerow (appointed in 1948) in anthropology.

The Department of Statistics was established in 1949 under the chairmanship of Albert H. Bowker. It quickly became a major center for research, which two years later was institutionalized as the Laboratory of Applied Mathematics and Statistics. Important staff appointments included Meyer Abraham Girshick (1948), Herman Chernoff (1951), and Charles E. Stein (1953).

In 1943 two professors of geography were brought to Stanford on a permanent basis. Seven years later, geography was established as a separate department under the chairmanship of C. Langdon White.

In 1951 the Committee for Research in the Social Sciences (CRISS) was set up as an inter-departmental body for the initiation, screening, and coordination of social science research. In the following year Alfred de Grazia, of the Political Science Department, was appointed its first executive officer, (see Chapter 8,III).

 

B. Remade Departments. In the years following 1945, first under the chairmanship of Bernard P. Haley and later under that of Edward S. Shaw, [p. 23] the Economics Department was restaffed with a series of outstanding younger scholars. The result has been a “planned” and well-integrated staff. The present national reputation of the department, particularly in the field of economic theory, largely dates from this period. The major additions to the staff, with their dates of appointment, are as follows: Tiber Scitovsky (1946), Lorie Tarshis (1946), Melvin W. Reder (1947), Moses Abramovitz (1948), Paul A. Baran (1949), Kenneth J. Arrow (1949).

A similar expansion tool: place in the Department of Psychology following the appointment of Ernest R. Hilgard as executive head in 1945. Here the chief additions to the staff now at associate or full professor rank included: Lois Meek Stolz (1945), Donald W. Taylor (1.945), Clarence L. Winder (1948), and Douglas H. Lawrence (1949). Last year Robert R. Sears was called to Stanford from a Harvard professorship to succeed Professor Hilgard as head of the department following the latter’s appointment as Dean of the Graduate Division.

The expansion of the Psychology Department was in three directions: (1) the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program supported by the Veterans Administration and the Public Health Service; (2) the nursery school and child development laboratory; (3) the Office of Project Research, as a “holding company” and initiator of research sponsored by the government and the foundations (see Chapter 8,V).

 

C. Changes in Other Behavioral Science Areas. Both History and Political Science have recently acquired new chairmen. In 1952 Thomas A. Bailey was appointed executive head of the former department and James T. Watkins IV of the latter. Today, of the behavioral science departments, only Journalism is under its pre-war head.

Of recent years the Department of History has pursued a vigorous policy of recruiting its staff from highly diversified academic and [p.24] geographical backgrounds. Areas in which substantial new staff recruiting has taken place include Far Eastern History—Claude A. Buss (1946), Arthur F. Wright (1947), and Thomas C. Smith (1948)—and United States history— John C. Miller (1949), Frank Freidel (1953), and Don E. Fehrenbacher (1953).

In Political Science, eight out of ten staff members of the rank of assistant professor and above are post-war appointees. Concurrently the Department has supplemented its earlier emphasis on international relations with added attention to public administration and political behavior.

The immediate post-war years saw the Hoover Institute and Library expanding its interests in new areas to which the Second World War had given increased importance. Whereas the pre-war collections had been heavily concentrated on Central and Eastern Europe, the Far East and, to a lesser extent, the Middle East now became areas of major interest. In 1941, the Hoover Library holdings on Asia and the Middle East consisted only of materials relating to mandates or colonies of European powers. Virtually none of this material was in the vernacular languages of these areas.

Since 1945, the Hoover Library has been making a systematic effort to collect and preserve the sources for the political, social, and economic history of Asia and the Middle East during the twentieth century, together with relevant background materials. The political and social movements of the twentieth century—nationalism, communism, religious movements with political significance, etc.—have formed the basis for the collections. The Chinese collection now numbers some 34,000 volumes; the Japanese collection, some 20,000 volumes; the Middle East collections, principally in Turkish and Arabic, some 8,000 volumes; the South Asian, and Southeast Asian collections are much smaller. These new interests have been reflected in the appointment of highly-trained scholars to serve as curators for the new collections—Christina P. Harris (Middle [p. 25] East), Mary C. Wright (China, Southeast Asia, and South Asia), and Nobutaka Ike (Japan).

Experiments in the application of newer techniques of behavioral science have constituted much of the post-war research in the Hoover Institute. The leading project, Revolution and the Development of International Relations (RADIR), was supported by the Carnegie Corporation.

 

D. Related Professional Schools. A further sign of the post-war tendency toward growth and change can be seen in the appointment of new deans for the School of law (Carl B. Spaeth, 1946), the School of Medicine (Windsor C. Cutting, 1953), and the School of Education (I. James Quillen, 1953).

 

E. Conclusion: Prospects for Continued Development. It is the conviction of the committee responsible for the present survey that the above evidences of development and branching into new fields of teaching and research represent the dominant tendency in Stanford today. The growth potential of the University is apparent in nearly all areas of behavioral science interest. The purpose of the present study is to look ahead on the basis of the foundations now in existence—bearing constantly in mind that for a comparatively small university the most advisable course is considerable specialization within departments rather than an effort to cover all fields equally.

 

[NOTES]

  1. Annual Register, 1892-93, p. 72.
  2. Annual Register, 1891-92.
  3. Annual Register, 1899-1900, p. 98.
  4. Became School of Education in 1917.
  5. Annual Register, 1908-09, p. 89.
  6. Established in 1924.
  7. Annual Register, 1924-25, p.240
  8. Annual Register, 1923-24.
  9. These twelve men are all former presidents of the American Political Science Association, as was W. W. Willoughby, mentioned earlier.
  10. Annual Report of the President, 1920, p. 28.
  11. Annual Report of the President, 1921, p.7.
  12. Ibid., p. 9.
  13. Annual Report of the President, 1924, p.3.
  14. Stanford University Press, 1948, p. 2.
  15. Annual Report of the President, 1939, p. 14.

 

Source: The Stanford Survey of the Behavioral Sciences. Report of the Executive Committee and Staff, July 1954.

Image Source: Library of Congress. Encina Hall, Leland Stanford Junior University (1898).

 

 

 

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Columbia Courses Economists Harvard Transcript

Columbia. Search Committee Report. 1950

This report is fascinating for a couple of reasons. The search committee understood its task to identify “the names of the most promising young economists, wherever trained and wherever located” from which a short list of three names for the replacement of Louis M. Hacker in Columbia College was selected. Organizationally, Columbia College is where undergraduate economics has been taught so that teaching excellence, including participation in Columbia College’s legendary Contemporary Civilization course sequence, was being sought as well as was potential for significant scholarship. Appendix C provides important information on James Tobin’s graduate economics education. In a later posting, I’ll provide information on others in the long-list of seventeen economists identified by the search committee.

___________________

January 9, 1950

 

Professor James W. Angell, Chairman
Department of Economics
Columbia University

Dear Mr. Chairman:

The Committee appointed by you to canvass possible candidates for the post in Columbia College that is made available by the designation of Professor Louis M. Hacker as Director of the School of General Studies submits herewith its report.

As originally constituted, this committee was made up of Professors Taylor, Barger, Hart and Haig (chairman). At an early stage the membership was expanded to include Professor Stigler and from the beginning the committee had the advantage of the constant assistance of the chairman of the department.

In accordance with the suggestions made at the budget meeting in November, the committee has conducted a broad inquiry, designed to raise for consideration the names of the most promising young economists, wherever trained and wherever located. In addition to the men known personally to the members of the committee, suggestions were solicited from the authorities at other institutions, including Harvard, Chicago, California and Leland Stanford. By mid December, scrutiny of the records and publications by the committee to the following seventeen:

 

Name Suggested by
Alchian, Armen A. Haley
Bronfenbrenner, Martin Friedman
Brownlee, O. H. Friedman
Christ, Carl L. Angell
Dewey, D. J. Friedman
Du[e]senberry, [James] Stigler
Goodwin, Richard M. Burbank
Harberger, J. H. Friedman
Ho[s]elitz, Bert Friedman
Lewis, H. Gregg Hart
Machlup, Fritz Stigler
Nicholls, William H. Stigler
Nutter, J. W. Friedman
Pancoast, Omar Taylor
Schelling, Thomas Burbank
Tobin, James Burbank
Vandermeulen, D. C. Ellis

[p. 2]

The meeting of the American Economic Association in New York during the Christmas holidays offered an opportunity to meet many of the men on the above list and to make inquiries regarding them. As a consequence, it has been possible for your committee to make rapid progress with its appraisals. Although the committee is continuing to gather information and data, it is prepared at this time to make a series of definite recommendations, with a high degree of confidence that these recommendations are not likely to be greatly disturbed by its further inquiries.

It is the unanimous opinion of the members of your committee that the most eligible and promising candidate on our list is Martin Bronfenbrenner, associate professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin, at present on leave for special service in Tokyo.

Should Bronfenbrenner prove to be unavailable the committee urges consideration of D. J. Dewey, at present holding a special fellowship at the University of Chicago, on leave from his teaching post at Iowa. As a third name, the committee suggests James Tobin, at present studying at Cambridge, England, on a special fellowship from Harvard.

Detailed information regarding the records of these three men will be found in appendices to this report.

Bronfenbrenner, the first choice of the committee, is 35 years old. He received his undergraduate degree from Washington University at the age of 20 and his Ph.D. from Chicago at 25. During his war service, he acquired a good command of the Japanese language. He taught at Roosevelt College, Chicago, before going to Wisconsin and undergraduate reports of his teaching are as enthusiastic as those of the authorities at Chicago. He happens to be personally well known to two of the members of your committee (Hart and Stigler) and to at last two other member of the department (Shoup and Vickrey), all four of whom commend him in high terms.

The following statement from Hart, dated December 6, 1929, was prepared after a conference with Friedman of Chicago:

“Bronfenbrenner is undoubtedly one of the really powerful original thinkers in the age group between thirty and thirty-five. He has always very much enjoyed teaching; my impression is that his effectiveness has been with the upper half of the student body at Roosevelt College and at Wisconsin. He is primarily a theorist but has a wide range of interest and a great deal of adaptability so it would not be much of a problem to fit him in somewhere [p. 3] in terms of specialization. He would do a good deal to keep professional discussion stirring in the University. My impression is that he tends to be underrated by the market, and that a chance at Columbia College might well be his best opportunity for some time ahead. The difficulty is, of course, that there is no chance of arranging an interview; though Shoup and Vickrey, of course, both saw him last summer.”

In a letter dated December 15, Shoup wrote as follows:

“I have a high regard for Martin Bronfenbrenner’s intellectual capacities, and I think he would fit in well in the Columbia scene. He has an excellent mind and a great intellectual independence. In his writings he sometimes tends to sharp, almost extreme statements, but in my opinion, they almost always have a solid foundation, and in conversation he is always ready to explore all sides of the question. When we had to select someone to take over the tax program in Japan, after the report had been formulated, and oversee the implementation of the program by the Japanese government, it was upon my recommendation that Bronfenbrenner was selected. He arrived in Japan in the middle of August and his work there since that time has confirmed me in my expectations that he would be an excellent selection for the job, even though he did not have very much technical background in taxation. I rank him as one of the most promising economists in his age group in this country, and I should not be surprised if he made one or more major contributions of permanent value in the coming years.

“He has gone to Japan on a two year appointment, after having obtained a two year leave of absence from the University of Wisconsin. My understanding is that on such an appointment he could come back to the United States at the end of one year, provided he paid his own passage back. It might be possible that even this requirement would be waived, but I have no specific grounds for thinking so. I believe the major part of his work with respect to implementing the tax program will have been completed by next September. If the committee finds itself definitely interested in the possibility of Bronfenbrenner’s coming to Columbia, I should not let the two year appointment stand in the way of making inquiries.”

The breadth and rang of his interests recommend Bronfenbrenner as a person who would probably be highly [p.4] valuable in the general course in contemporary civilization and the quality of his written work suggests high promise as a productive scholar in one or more specialized fields.

Your committee considers that the appropriate rank would be that of associate professor.

Respectfully submitted,

[signed]

Robert M. Haig

 

______________________________

Appendix A – Martin Bronfenbrenner

The following data regarding Bronfenbrenner are taken chiefly from the 1948 Directory of the American Economic Assoication:

Born: 1914

Education and Degrees:

A.B. Washington University, 1934
Ph.D. University of Chicago 1939
1940-42, George Washington School of Law

Fields: Theory, mathematical economics, statistical methods, econometrics

Doctoral dissertation: Monetary theory and general equilibrium

Publications:

“Consumption function controversy”, Southern Economic Journal, January, 1948
“Price control under imperfect competition”, American Economic Review, March, 1947
“Dilemma of Liberal Economics,” Journal of Political Economy, August, 1946

Additional publications:

“Post-War Political Economy: The President’s Reports”, Journal of Political Economy, October, 1948
Various book reviews including one on W. I. King’s The Keys to Prosperity, Journal of Political Economy, December, 1948, and A. H. Hansen’s Monetary Theory and Fiscal Policy, Annals

Additions to list of publications circulated, January 9, 1950

“The Economics of Collective Bargaining”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1939.
(with Paul Douglas) “Cross-Section Studies in the Cobb-Douglas Function”, Journal of Political Economy, 1939.
“Applications of the Discontinuous Oligopoly Demand Curve”, Journal of Political Economy, 1940.
“Diminishing Returns in Federal Taxation” Journal of Political Economy, 1942.
“The Role of Money in Equilibrium Capital Theory”, Econometrica (1943).

______________________________

Appendix B – D. J. Dewey

On leave from Iowa.

In 1948 studied at Cambridge, England.
1949-50, at Chicago on special fellowship.

Bibliography:

Notes on the Analysis of Socialism as a Vocational Problem, Manchester School, September, 1948.
Occupational Choice in a Collectivist Economy, Journal of Political Economy, December, 1948.

Friedman and Schultz are highly enthusiastic.

Statement by Hart, dated December 6, 1949:

“Friedman regards Dewey as first rate and points to an article on ‘Proposal for Allocating the Labor Force in a Planned Economy’ (Journal of Political Economy, as far as I remember in July 1949) for which the J.P.E. gave a prize as the best article of the year. I read the article, rather too quickly, a few weeks ago and it is definitely an imaginative and powerful piece of work. How the conclusions would look after a thorough-going seminar discussion, I am not clear; but the layout of questions is fascinating.”

______________________________

Appendix [C] – James Tobin

Statement by Burbank of Harvard, dated December 14, 1949:

“We have known Tobin a good many years. He came to us as a National Scholar, completed his work for the A.B. before the war and had advanced his graduate work very well before he went into the service. He received his Ph.D. in 1947. Since 1947 he has been a Junior Fellow. He was a teaching fellow from 1945 to 1947. He is now in Cambridge, England, and will, I believe, begin his professional work by next fall. Since Tobin has been exposed to Harvard for a very long time I believe that he feels that for his own intellectual good he should go elsewhere. I doubt if we could make a stronger recommendation than Tobin nor one in which there will be greater unanimity of opinion. Certainly he is one of the top men we have had here in the last dozen years. He is now intellectually mature. He should become one of the handful of really outstanding scholars of his generation. His interests are mainly in the area of money but he is also interested in theory and is competent to teach at any level.”

Data supplied by Harvard:

Address:    Department of Applied Economics, Cambridge University, England

Married:   Yes, one child

Born:          1918, U.S.

Degrees:

A. B. Harvard, 1939 (Summa cum laude)
A.M. Harvard, 1940
Ph.D. Harvard, 1947

Fields of Study: Theory, Ec. History, Money and Banking, Political Theory: write-off, Statistics

Special Field: Business Cycles

Thesis Topic: A Theoretical and Statistical Analysis of Consumer Saving

Experience:

1942-45 U.S. Navy
1945-47 Teaching Fellow, Harvard University
1947- Junior Fellow, Society of Fellows

[p. 2 of Appendix C]

Courses:           1939-40

Ec. 21a (Stat.)                  A
Ec. 121b (Adv. St.)          A
Ec. 133 (Ec. Hist)            A
Ec. 147a (M&B Sem)      A
Ec. 145b (Cycles)             A
Ec. 113b (Hist. Ec.)       Exc.
Gov. 121a (Pol.Th.)         A

1940-1941

Ec. 121a (Stat.)                A
Ec. 164 (Ind. Org.)          A
Ec. 20 (Thesis)                A
Ec. 118b (App. St.)          A
Math 21                             A
Ec. 104b (Math Ec.)       A

1946-47 Library and Guidance

Generals:       Passed May 22, 1940 with grade of Good Plus
Specials:         Passed May 9, 1947 with grade of Excellent.

 

Data from 1948 Directory of American Economic Association:

Harvard University, Junior Fellow

Born:                1918

Degrees:           A. B., Harvard, 1939; Ph.D., Harvard, 1947j

Fields: Business fluctuations, econometrics, economic theory, and mathematical economics

Dissertation: A theoretical and statistical analysis of consumer saving.

Publications:

“Note on Money Wage Problem”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1941.
“Money Wage Rates and Employment”, in New Economics (Knopf, 1947).
“Liquidity Preference and monetary Policy”, Review of Economics and Statistics, 1947.
[pencil addition] Article in Harris (ed.), The New Economics, 1947.

______________________________

Source: Columbia University Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Department of Economics Collection, Box 6, Folder “Columbia College”

Image Source: The beyondbrics blog of the Financial Times.