Alvin Saunders Johnson (December 18, 1874 – June 7, 1971) was an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and a co-founder and first director of

The New School The New School is a Private university, private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for p ...

Biography

Alvin Johnson was born near Homer, Nebraska. He was educated at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

and Columbia (Ph.D., 1902). Afterwards, he was employed in various positions at Columbia, the

, the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

, the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

, and at

Cornell Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since ...

after 1913. He was assistant editor of the ''Political Science Quarterly'' in 1902–06, and editor from 1917 of the ''New Republic'' in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. He was a co-founder of

in New York in 1918, becoming its director in 1922. Johnson helped to save numerous central European scholars from persecution by the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s, then brought them to a specially-created division of the New School which became known as the "University in Exile". There, among others, he worked with the antifascist intellectual

Max Ascoli Max Ascoli (June 25, 1898 – January 1, 1978) was a Jewish Italian-American professor of political philosophy and law at the New School for Social Research, United States of America. Career Ascoli's career started in Italy and continued in th ...

. He was also an editor of the massive ''

Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences The ''Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences'' is a specialized fifteen-volume Encyclopedia first published in 1930 and last published in 1967. It was envisaged in the 1920s by scholars working in disciplines which increasingly were coming to be know ...

''. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

in 1942. He officially retired in December 1945, and died in 1971 in

Upper Nyack, New York Upper Nyack is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village incorporated in 1872 in the Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town of Clarkstown, New York, Clarkstown, Rockland County, New York, Rockland County, New York (state), ...

Major publications

*Rent in Modern Economic Theory: An Essay in Distribution, 1903. *Introduction to Economics, 1909. *"Review of Hobson's Industrial System", 1911, AER. *"Review of Hobson's Science of Wealth", 1912, AER. *"Review of Böhm-Bawerk's Positive Theory of Capital", 1914, AER. *"Review of Adler's Kapitalzins und Preisbewegung", 1914, AER. *War and the Interests of Labor, 1914. *Commerce and War, 1914. *The Professor and the Petticoat, 1914 (novel). *"Review of Carver's Essays in Social Justice and Hollander's Abolition of Poverty", 1916, AER *John Stuyvesant, Ancestor, 1919. *Editor, Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, 1930. *"The Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism", 1939, Survey Graphic *The Clock of History, 1946. *Socialism in Western Europe, 1948. *Pioneer's Progress: An autobiography, 1952. *Essays in Social Economics, 1954. *New World for Old: A Family Migration, 1965 *Introduction to Economics, 1971.
New School Web Site

Legacy

He was inducted into the

Nebraska Hall of Fame The Nebraska Hall of Fame officially recognizes prominent individuals from the State of Nebraska. Twenty-six busts located on the second floor of the Nebraska State Capitol commemorate members of the Hall of Fame. Nebraska Medal of Honor recipie ...

in 2012.

Literature

* Peter M. Rutkoff, William B. Scott: ''New School: a History of the New School for Social Research''. New York: Free Press 1986. * : ''Wissenschaft im Exil. Deutsche Sozial- und Wirtschaftswissenschaftler in den USA und die New School for Social Research'', Frankfurt a.M. Campus 1987. * Autobiography, ''Pioneer's Progress'', published in 1952

References

External links

*
www.newschool.edu
* Alvin Saunders Johnson papers (MS 615). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library

* 1874 births 1971 deaths People from Dakota County, Nebraska Economists from New York (state) American essayists American male journalists University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni Columbia University alumni People from Upper Nyack, New York American male essayists Presidents of the American Economic Association Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Economists from Nebraska Journal of Political Economy editors Members of the American Philosophical Society {{US-economist-stub