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Bertram Benedict (May 2, 1892 – June 1978) was an American author and editor. He was a partial owner of the
Editorial Research Reports Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combine ...
, and a book reviewer for ''
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
''. His 1921 book, ''The Larger Socialism'', was a critique of
socialism in the United States The history of the socialist movement in the United States spans a variety of tendencies, including anarchists, communists, democratic socialists, Marxists, Marxist–Leninists, Trotskyists and utopian socialists. It began with utopian c ...
.


Early life

Bertram Benedict was born in 1892 in
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
, Maryland. He graduated from
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...
in 1912.


Career

Benedict began his career as a social worker in Pittsburgh and Syracuse. In 1917, he was hired by the
Bureau of National Literature Bureau ( ) may refer to: Agencies and organizations *Government agency * Public administration * News bureau, an office for gathering or distributing news, generally for a given geographical location * Bureau (European Parliament), the administ ...
, and authored several books, including ''The Larger Socialism'', published in 1921. In the book, Benedict, who was a member of the
Socialist Party of America The Socialist Party of America (SPA) was a socialist political party in the United States formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party of Ameri ...
, considers whether socialism is more Christian than capitalism, and criticizes the over-reliance of Marxian theory, especially its focus on social classes, in the American context. Benedict contended that socialism failed to appear attractive to most Americans because most socialists were born outside the United States and failed to adapt its tenets to the reality of rural America, whose economy was primarily agricultural, not industrial. He added that most Americans were "unable or unwilling to think in abstract terms"; instead, he believed Americans would need a charismatic socialist leader to find it attractive. In the ''
American Journal of Sociology The ''American Journal of Sociology'' is a Peer review, peer-reviewed bi-monthly academic journal that publishes original research and book reviews in the field of sociology and related social sciences. It was founded in 1895 as the first journal ...
'', Victor E. Helleberg wrote that the book was "an attempt to reconstruct the strategy of socialist campaigning by broadening the outlook and considering carefully the situation in the United States." Reviewing it for the ''
Journal of Political Economy The ''Journal of Political Economy'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal published by the University of Chicago Press. Established by James Laurence Laughlin in 1892, it covers both theoretical and empirical economics. In the past, th ...
'',
Paul Douglas Paul Howard Douglas (March 26, 1892 – September 24, 1976) was an American politician and Georgist economist. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Illinois for eighteen years, from 1949 to 1967. During his Senate ...
called it "an extraordinary clear and candid book." Benedict first worked for the
Editorial Research Reports Congressional Quarterly, Inc., or CQ, is part of a privately owned publishing company called CQ Roll Call that produces a number of publications reporting primarily on the United States Congress. CQ was acquired by the Economist Group and combine ...
in 1929. He acquired a stake in 1944, and left the company in 1959. He reviewed books for ''
The New York Times Magazine ''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
''.


Personal life and death

Benedict married
Ruth Sarles Benedict Ruth Sarles Benedict (January 28, 1906 - September 6, 1996) was an American anti-war activist, researcher and journalist. She worked for the National Council for Prevention of War as an editor and the America First Committee as head of research in ...
. They resided in
Oxford, Maryland Oxford is a waterfront town and former colonial port in Talbot County, Maryland, United States. The population was 651 at the 2010 census. History Oxford is one of the oldest towns in Maryland. While Oxford officially marks the year 1683 as its f ...
. Benedict died of cancer in 1978 at Memorial Hospital in
Easton, Maryland Easton is an incorporated town in and the county seat of Talbot County, Maryland, United States. The population was 15,945 at the 2010 census, with an estimated population in 2019 of 16,671. The primary ZIP Code is 21601, and the secondary ...
, aged 86.


Selected works

*''The Larger Socialism'' (1921) *''History of Great Wars'' *''Messages and Papers of Presidents'' (ed.)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Benedict, Bertram 1892 births 1978 deaths Maryland socialists People from Baltimore People from Talbot County, Maryland Johns Hopkins University alumni Members of the Socialist Party of America Deaths from cancer in Maryland