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Frank W. Taussig and Carl S. Joslyn on the social origins of American business leaders. A chapter in the history of social science at Harvard

Author

Listed:
  • Luca Fiorito
  • Massimiliano Vatiero

Abstract

In their 1932 volume American Business Leaders: A Study in Social Origins and Social Stratification, Frank W. Taussig and Carl S Joslyn, then a young Harvard graduate, argued that success in business depended more on innate superiority than on other environmental factors such as financial aid, influential connections, and formal education. The aim of this paper is to analyze the main contentions of Taussig and Joslyn, as well the intellectual genesis of, and the general reactions to, this controversial volume. Although our main focus is on Taussig and Joslyn, other figures, all directly affiliated with Harvard, will play a decisive role in our narrative—the economist Thomas Nixon Carver, the psychologist William McDougall, and the sociologist Pitirim Aleksandrovic Sorokin. This makes the scope of this paper in many respects broader than its title may suggest—in the sense that it will allow us to place a work like American Business Leaders within the context of an important strand of social science research at Harvard during the interwar years.

Suggested Citation

  • Luca Fiorito & Massimiliano Vatiero, 2019. "Frank W. Taussig and Carl S. Joslyn on the social origins of American business leaders. A chapter in the history of social science at Harvard," Department of Economics University of Siena 810, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    • Handle: RePEc:usi:wpaper:810
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    File URL: http://repec.deps.unisi.it/quaderni/810.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Wesley C. Mitchell, 1910. "The Rationality of Economic Activity," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(3), pages 197-197.
    2. Tobin, James, 1985. "Neoclassical Theory in America: J. B. Clark and Fisher," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(6), pages 28-38, December.
    3. Asso, Pier Francesco & Fiorito, Luca, 2004. "Human Nature and Economic Institutions: Instinct Psychology, Behaviorism, and the Development of American Institutionalism," Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(4), pages 445-477, December.
    4. J A. Schumpeter & A. H. Cole & E. S. Mason, 1941. "Frank William Taussig," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 55(3), pages 337-363.
    5. Miller, William, 1949. "American Historians and the Business Elite," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 184-208, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Taussig; Frank Williams; eugenics; hereditarianism; business leaders; Harvard;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B1 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925
    • B15 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought through 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary

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