At the beginning of the twentieth century there was only one instructor for economics at Amherst College. He offered elective courses to seniors. His name was James Walter Crook, Associate Professor of Political Economy, an 1895 Columbia University Ph.D, the successor to John Bates Clark who had briefly taught at Amherst from 1892 to 1895.
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James Walter Crook
Timeline
1859. Born December 21 in Bewdley, Ontario, Canada.
1883. Married Eva Maria Lewis of Manistee, Michigan. They had no children.
1891. A.B., Oberlin College.
1891-92. Instructor in history, Oberlin College.
1892-93. Graduate fellow in economics at the University of Wisconsin.
1893-94. Graduate student at the University of Berlin, Germany.
1894-95. Graduate fellow in economics at Columbia University.
1895. Lecturer on Taxation at Columbia University.
1895. Ph.D., Columbia University.
German Wage Theories: A History of Their Development. Vol. IX, No. 2 (1898) of Studies in History, Economics and Public Law. New York: Columbia University
1895–99. Assistant Professor of Political Economy, Amherst College.
1899-1907. Associate Professor of Political Economy, Amherst College.
1907-27. Professor of Political Economy, Amherst College.
1912. M.A., Amherst College.
1927—. Professor Emeritus, Amherst College.
1927-33. Professor of Public Speaking at Northeastern University.
1933. Died November 22 in Springfield, Massachusetts.
Sources: Annual yearbooks of Amherst College (The Olio), Crook’s Boston Globe obituary (October 23, 1933)
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Amherst College
Economics Course Offerings
1901-02
Professor Crook
The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 denote, not the four classes, but the successive years in which courses are offered. The letters a, b, c denote the first, second, and third terms. The letters aa, bb, cc indicate courses parallel with courses a, b, c, respectively. [p. 51]
(1 a) Outlines of economics. Walker’s Political Economy; Hadley’s Economics. (Four hour course.)
(1 b) Advanced work in economic theory. Assigned readings in Smith, Ricardo, and Mill, with especial attention to Marshall’s Principles of Economics and Clark’s Distribution of Wealth. (1 a requisite.)
(1 bb) Money and banking. Dunbar’s Theory and History of Banking; White’s Money and Banking; Taussig’s Silver [Situation in the United States]. (1 a requisite.)
The practical monetary problems of the United States are considered, and the systems of banking practised in England, France, Germany, and the United States are compared.
(1 c) Public finance; taxation; public expenditures; public debts; financial administration. Adams’s Science of Finance. (1 a requisite.)
(1 cc) Practical economic problems; transportation; monopolies; trusts. Thesis required. Hadley’s Railroad Transportation; Jenks’s Trust Problem, (1 a requisite.)
Source: Amherst College Catalogue for the Year 1901-02, pp. 53-54.
Image Source: James Walter Crook in The Olio 1905, p. 23.