Maynard C. Krueger (January 16, 1906 – December 20, 1991) was an

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socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

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and an

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at the

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. He is best remembered as the

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Vice Presidential nominee 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 ...

Biography

Early years

Maynard Krueger was born January 16, 1906, on a farm near

Alexandria, Missouri Alexandria is a city in eastern Clark County, Missouri, United States. As of the 2020 census, its population was 105. Alexandria is part of the Fort Madison– Keokuk, IA-MO Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Alexandria was founded i ...

, in 1906. A gifted student, Krueger completed his high school work at the age of 15.Maynard C. Krueger, ''End Hunger in the Midst of Plenty! Jobs and Security for All the People!'' New York: Socialist Party National Campaign Committee, n.d. (1940), pg. 2. He entered the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1926 and a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in 1927.

Career

An instructor at the University of Pennsylvania from 1928 to 1932, Krueger also spent time at the universities of Berlin, Paris, and Geneva.U. of Chicago Round Table on B-N Forum
, ''The Illinois Wesleyan Argus'', 6 October 1948 (accessed 31 October 2008). His leftist associates in Paris included

George Orwell Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitar ...

. In 1932, Krueger accepted a position at the

as an assistant professor, initially lecturing in Sociology under Edward Shils. Soon moving to the Economics Department, Krueger became an associate professor in 1947, a full professor in 1965, and emeritus in 1977. He gained a measure of public recognition during the 1930s as a frequent participant in the University of Chicago's regular Round Table radio broadcasts. Krueger was involved with many left-wing organizations such as the

and the Chicago Workers Committee on Unemployment. During the election campaign of 1932, Krueger served as the national director of research for the Socialist Party. Krueger was also active in the

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movement, serving three times as a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers during the decade of the 1930s. He was also active in the Chicago Federation of Labor during 1936 and 1937. During the Socialist Party's faction fight of the 1930s, Krueger was an active member of the so-called "Militant" faction of young

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s who sought to turn the SP to the left. In August 1933, he was a delegate at the Socialist International Congress at

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, where he advocated arming the

proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philo ...

. In

, Krueger was the Socialist Party's candidate for

Vice President of the United States The vice president of the United States (VPOTUS) is the second-highest officer in the executive branch of the U.S. federal government, after the president of the United States, and ranks first in the presidential line of succession. The vice ...

, running with Norman Thomas. Although Krueger was 34 at the time of the November 1940 election, younger than the constitutional age of 35 for someone seeking to be in line for the U.S. presidency, he was able to point out that by Inauguration Day on January 20, 1941, he would be 35 years and 4 days old. In November 1940, the Thomas-Krueger ticket received 116,599 votes (0.2% of the total). Krueger was on the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party for many years, serving as the SP's National Chairman from 1942 to 1946. In 1948, Krueger ran as an

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candidate for

U.S. Representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from Illinois's 2nd congressional district, receiving 4,566 votes (2.52%). In 1958, Krueger won the University of Chicago's Quantrell Award, believed to be the nation's oldest prize for undergraduate teaching.Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
, The University of Chicago (accessed 31 October 2008).

Death and legacy

Krueger died on December 20, 1991. He was 85 years old at the time of his death.

Footnotes

Works

* ''Inflation: Who Wins and Who Loses?'' Chicago: Socialist Party of America, 1934. * "Economic and Political Radicalism," ''American Journal of Sociology,'' v. 40, no. 6 (May 1935), pp. 764–771. * ''End Hunger in the Midst of Plenty! Jobs and Security for All the People!'' New York: Socialist Party National Campaign Committee, n.d. (1940). {{DEFAULTSORT:Kreuger, Maynard C. 1906 births 1991 deaths American Marxists Marxian economists People from Clark County, Missouri Socialist Party of America politicians from Illinois 1940 United States vice-presidential candidates Writers from Chicago Writers from Missouri 20th-century American economists Socialist Party of America vice presidential nominees University of Missouri alumni