Profile Major Works Resources

Henry Walcott Farnam, 1853-1933

Portrait of H.W. Farnam

American "new generation" historicist economist

Henry W. Farnam had the luck of being born to a wealthy railway fortune.  But, in many ways, Yale and, indeed, economics itself, was luckier.  After taking his B.A. at Yale in 1874,  Farnam took one of the first "earned" M.A. degrees at Yale in 1876.  He then did the obligatory tour of Germany for further studies.  He acquired his Ph.D at the University of Strasbourg in 1878.   

Upon his return, Henry W. Farnam was immediately appointed as lecturer in Latin at Yale College in 1878.  In 1880, Farnam was suddenly elevated as the first Professor of Political Economy at Yale College.  In 1881, he replaced F.A. Walker at Yale's Sheffield Scientific School.  Farnam's lectures at Yale College and Sheffield  specialized in public finance and labor organization.  

Being independently wealthy, Farnam refused to collect his salary checks, and instead re-deposited them with Yale to be spent on Yale-related causes he deemed fit.  This included all sorts of overlooked good works, from building a social science library to refurbishing of dormitories to providing women's lavatories at the Yale Medical School.  One of his "good causes" was the aspiring economist Arthur T. Hadley.  Unable to get a salaried appointment on his own, Hadley's 1885 work on railways impressed Farnam, who subsequently ordered Yale to use his "credit" to pay for Hadley's salary as a lecturer in political science at Yale.  Farnam also financed the young Irving Fisher's construction of a hydro-static machine to illustrate the theory of general equilibrium. 

Another of Farnam's "good works" was the creation of a house journal for the Yale social scientists.  In 1892, he bought the New Englander and Yale Review and re-launched it simply as The Yale Review, a journal for "scientific discussion of economic, political and social questions."   He served as its chief editor until 1911, when he closed it up in deference to the launching of the A.E.A.'s American Economic Review.

Others outside Yale also benefited from Farnam's generosity.  The American Bureau of Industrial Research, founded in 1904 by Richard T. Ely and John R. Commons of Wisconsin, was initially funded by Farnam.  Farnam also acquired an appointment at the Carnegie Institution in Washington.  

 

  

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Major Works of Henry W. Farnam

  • "The Philosophy of Montaigne", 1875,  New Englander , p.405 [moa]
  • Die innere französische gewerbepolitik von Colbert bis Turgot, 1878 [bk]
  • Die amerikanischen Gewerkvereine, 1879 [bk]
  • "Manual Training for Boys in Public Schools", 1884,   New Englander, p.561 [moa]
  • "Review of R.T. Ely's Labor Movement", 1886, PSQ (Dec), p.683 [js]
  • "Academic Freedom in Germany", 1887, New Englander & Yale Review, p.67 [moa]

  • "Progress and Poverty in Politics", 1887,  New Englander and Yale Rev, p.335 [moa]

  • "Review of Wilkinson's The Friendly Society Movement", 1887, PSQ (Dec), p.690 [js]

  • "The State and the Poor", 1888, PSQ (Jun), p.282 [js]

  • "Review of Aschrott's Das Englische Armenwesen and Munsterberg's Die Deutsche Armengesetzgebung", 1888, PSQ (Jun), p.358 [js]

  • "Review of Sering's Die Landwirthschaftliche Konkurrenz Nordamerikas", 1888, PSQ (Sep), p.536 [js]

  • "Review of Revaler Zollbucher und-Quittungen des 14. Jahrhunderts"  1888, PSQ (Dec), p.713 [js]

  • "Some Economic Aspects of the Liquor Problem", 1899, Atlantic Monthly  [moa]
  • The Liquor Problem, 1905
  • "The Economic Utilization of History", 1912, AER
  • The Economic Utilization of History and Other Studies, 1913 [bk]
  • History of Labor in the United States, 1918
  • Confessions of a Prohibitionist, 1923
  • Shakespeare's Economics, 1931
  • Chapters in the history of social legislation in the United States to 1860, 1938
HET

 
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Resources on Henry W. Farnam

  • "Henry Walcott Farnam, 1853-1933" by Irving Fisher, 1935, Proc AAPSS
  • H.W. Farnam papers at Yale
  • H.W. Fanam online books page at U Penn.
  • Wikpediai on Farnam's father

 

 
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