According to the annual Report of the President of Harvard College for 1889/90 and 1890/91, “Prof. Taussig and Mr. Brooks” were the instructors for the course Political Economy 2. This post is dedicated to the second term of the Political Economy 2 in those years that was devoted to economic theories of socialism and taught by John Graham Brooks. Four boxes of Brooks’ papers are to be found at the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. Taussig’s exam scrapbook in the Harvard archives does not include exam questions for the second terms of 1890 and 1891 which is certainly consistent with Brooks being the instructor during the second term.
This post provides biographical information for John Graham Brooks followed by transcriptions of his two examinations.
Incidentally, W.E.B. Dubois was enrolled in Economics 2 in 1890/91 as a graduate student and was awarded a grade of A during the first term (one of six awarded to the twenty-two who received grades, as recorded in Taussig’s scrapbook).
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Harvard Career
John Graham Brooks (see S.T.B. 1875), Lectr. On Socialism 1885-1886; Instr. in Political Economy 1898-1891.
Source: Harvard University. Quinquennial catalogue of the officers and graduates, 1636-1925, p. 45.
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Brief biography
John Graham Brooks attended the University of Michigan Law School for a short time, before changing his mind about being a lawyer. He then attended Oberlin College and Harvard Divinity School, graduating in 1875. Brooks was then ordained as a Unitarian Universalist minister, preaching at a church in Massachusetts and speaking on the issues of the working poor. In 1882, Brooks resigned from his position as a minister and began studying history and economics at several German universities. He and his family then lived in London for a while, where Brooks lectured about the working class. He then returned to Massachusetts and preaching, while continuing to lecture about socialism and the lives of the working class. He also wrote articles for The Forum and The Nation. In 1891 he became an investigator of the conditions of workers for the U.S. Department of Labor, which led to him writing a book, The Social Unrest: Studies in Labor and Socialist Movements. Brooks wrote other books as well, in which he discussed class struggles. In 1904, he was the president of the American Social Science Association, and from 1899 to 1915 he was the first president of the National Consumers’ League.
Source: Brooks, John Graham (1846-1938) at the digital edition of the Jane Addams Papers Project.
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Boston Globe Obituary
February 9, 1938. Page 17.
JOHN G. BROOKS, 91,
ECONOMIST IS DEAD
Former Harvard Teacher,
Once Unitarian Cleric
John Graham Brooks, 91, labor champion, sociologist and political authority, died yesterday at his home at 8 Francis av., Cambridge.
During the early part of the century, he was extremely active as a friend of labor and a prolific lecturer throughout the country and in many universities on political and social economy.
He was born in Ackworth, N.H., and prepared for college in country schools. He was graduated from Oberlin College in 1872 and from the Harvard Divinity School in 1875. He added to his education the following three years with courses at the Universities of Berlin, Jena and Freiburg.
Returning to this country, he entered the ministry as associate pastor with Dr. George Putnam at the Unitarian Church in Roxbury and later was for six years pastor of the Unitarian Church of Brockton. At the same time he conducted courses at Harvard on economic subjects.
Leaving the ministry in 1890. he devoted the major part of his time to investigations and lectures on political science and social economy. For several years he was lecturer for the extension departments of the Universities of Chicago and of California. He was for two years the expert of the United States Department of Labor, and compiled for that department, in 1893, an exhaustive report on workmen’s insurance in Germany, and since that time continued to lecture on economic and sociological subjects all over the United States, especially at the People’s Institute in New York. As an author his best-known works are “The Social Unrest,” “As Others See Us” and “An American Citizen [Life of William Henry Baldwin, Jr.].”
Prof. Brooks served as president on the American Social Science Association, and president of the National Consumers’ League and a member of the national committee on child labor. He was a member of the famous committee of 50, which, under the lead of Pres. Eliot of Harvard, made an investigation of the workings of the Gothenburg system of dealing with the liquor traffic.
In 1908 Prof. Brooks lectured with now Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis on the old age pension problems and at the time expressed some pessimism over the systems then in use.
In recent years, Mr. Brooks has been in retirement, little in public life.
He is survived by a wife, Mrs. Helen Lawrence Brooks; a son, Lawrence Brooks, and four grandchildren.
[Other books:
American Syndicalism: The I.W.W. New York: Macmillan, 1913.
Labor’s Challenge to the Social Order: Democracy its own Critic and Educator. New York: Macmillan, 1920.]
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Enrollment 1889-90
[Political Economy] 2. History of Economic Theory. First half-year: Lectures on the History of Economic Theory.—Discussion of selections from Adam Smith and Ricardo.—Topics in distribution, with special reference to wages and managers’ returns.—Second half-year: Modern Socialism in France, Germany, and England.—an extended thesis from each student. Prof. Taussig and Mr. Brooks.
Total 24: 7 Seniors, 12 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 4 Others.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1889-90, p. 80.
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Political Economy 2.
Year-end Examination, June 1890.
- Characterize French Socialism, chiefly with reference to St. Simon and Louis Blanc.
- What general differences do you note between French and German Socialism?
- Summarize Lasalle’s theory of history development.
- State and criticize in detail Marx’s theory of surplus value. What follows as to Socialism, if this theory fails?
- Is Schaeffle a Socialist? If so, why? If not, why not?
- State the present attitude of English Socialism, with special reference to the Fabian Society. Note the most important changes from the Marx type.
- In what definite ways would Socialism modify the system of private property?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Vol. Examination Papers, 1890-92. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1890), pp. 11-12.
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Enrollment 1890-91
For Graduates and Undergraduates:—
[Political Economy] 2. Professor Taussig and Mr. Brooks. — History of Economic Theory. — Examination of selections from Leading Writers. — Socialism. 3 hours.
Total 23: 4 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 8 Juniors, 1 Other.
Source: Harvard University, Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College, 1890-91, p. 58.
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Political Economy 2.
Year-end Examination, June 1891.
- From Rousseau to the Fabians, what have been the chief historic changes in the Philosophy of Socialism?
- What was Lassalle’s conception of historic development?
- In detail, state the differences between the Marx type of Socialism and that of the Fabians.
- With reference to the “three rents” what are the most important objections to Socialism?
- What reasons can you give to show that Socialism is likely to have much further development in our society?
Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 3, Vol. Examination Papers, 1890-92. Papers set for Final Examinations in Philosophy, Political Economy, History, Roman Law, Fine Arts, and Music in Harvard College (June, 1891), p. 11.
Image Source: The Bookman vol. 27 (March-August, 1908), p. 119.