William Graham Sumner

1840–1910

Nationality: American

Historical Period: The 19th Century

William Graham Sumner (1840-1910) was one of the founding father’s of American sociology. Although he trained as an Episcopalian clergyman, Sumner went on to teach at Yale University where he wrote his most influential works. His interests included money and tariff policy, critiques of socialism, social classes, and anti-imperialism.

See the Liberty Matters online discussion on William Graham Sumner - Liberty’s Forgotten Man

Quotes from William Graham Sumner:

• William Graham Sumner on free trade and individual liberty
• William Graham Sumner on the “do-nothing” state vs. ”the meddling” state
• William Graham Sumner on political corruption as “jobbery”
• William Graham Sumner on social co-operation
• William Graham Sumner on the racism which lies behind Imperialism
• William Graham Sumner on how “society” helps the drunkard in the gutter
• William Grahma Sumner on the legalization of robbery by the State
• William Graham Sumner and the Conquest of the United States by Spain
• William Graham Sumner reminds us never to forget the “Forgotten Man”, the ordinary working man and woman who pays the taxes and suffers under government regulation
• William Graham Sumner denounced America’s war against Spain and thought that “war, debt, taxation, diplomacy, a grand governmental system, pomp, glory, a big army and navy, lavish expenditures, political jobbery” would result in imperialsm

Titles from William Graham Sumner:

• Author: The Challenge of Facts and other Essays
• Author: Earth-Hunger and Other Essays (1913)
• Author: The Forgotten Man and Other Essays (corrected edition)
• Author: A History of American Currency
• Author: A History of Banking in all the Leading Nations, vol. 1 (U.S.A.)
• Author: Protectionism: the -ism which teaches that waste makes wealth
• Author: War and Other Essays
• Author: What Social Classes Owe to Each Other