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Sumner was one of the great teachers in the history of American undergraduate education. Teaching was always his first priority. A large man, fastidiously dressed, with a "magnificently bald" head and stern countenance, his "iron voice," and total control of his materials commanded the attention and confidence of generations of students. Starting with common observations anyone could make, he peeled away layer after layer of complexity to reach the core economic and social principles with a freshness and brilliance that went straight to the heart of his subject. he stated the facts in plain and often epigrammatic language. Honest and fearless, indifferent to tradition, he struck hard blows, never glossed over anything, and never spared any feelings. Sumner deplored the prominence given to Greek and Latin at Yale, and lobbied his colleagues to broaden the curriculum, especially by introducing scientific studies into the academic department. When President Noah Porter objected to Sumner's use of [[Herbert Spencer]]'s ''The Study of Sociology'' as a textbook, Sumner won a vigorous fight for academic freedom, which through newspaper reports attracted national attention

Sumner was one of the great teachers in the history of American undergraduate education. Teaching was always his first priority. A large man, fastidiously dressed, with a "magnificently bald" head and stern countenance, his "iron voice," and total control of his materials commanded the attention and confidence of generations of students. Starting with common observations anyone could make, he peeled away layer after layer of complexity to reach the core economic and social principles with a freshness and brilliance that went straight to the heart of his subject. he stated the facts in plain and often epigrammatic language. Honest and fearless, indifferent to tradition, he struck hard blows, never glossed over anything, and never spared any feelings. Sumner deplored the prominence given to Greek and Latin at Yale, and lobbied his colleagues to broaden the curriculum, especially by introducing scientific studies into the academic department. When President Noah Porter objected to Sumner's use of [[Herbert Spencer]]'s ''The Study of Sociology'' as a textbook, Sumner won a vigorous fight for academic freedom, which through newspaper reports attracted national attention

==Political theory==

==Political theory==

Sumner played with a Social Darwinist themes borrowed from [[Herbert Spencer]] during the 1880s, but unpublished manuscripts by Sumner discovered in the 1970s show that he came to reject the basic premises of Social Darwinism by 1900.<ref> Sumner’s apparent support for Social Darwinism as stated in ''The Science of Society'' (1927, printed 17 years after Sumner's death) was actually the thought of Albert Galloway Keller, with whom he collaborated. Norman E. Smith and Roscoe C. Hinkle, "Sumner Versus Keller and the Social Evolutionism of Early American Sociology." ''Sociological Inquiry'' 1979 49(1): 41-48. 0038-0245; Norman Erik Smith, "William Graham Sumner as an Anti-Social Darwinist." ''Pacific Sociological Review'' 1979 22(3): 332-347. 0030-8919 </ref> Sumner's thought was a synthesis of Scottish Common Sense Realism, classical [[republicanism]], and [[laissez-faire]] economics. His synthesis continues to inform much of modern conservative social thought. Sumner's opposition to the Spanish-American War in 1898 emerged from his fear that imperialism would undermine republican government by strengthening the hand of the plutocracy, "the political power of capital."<ref> Pickens (1987)</ref>   

Sumner played with a Social Darwinist themes borrowed from [[Herbert Spencer]] during the 1880s, but unpublished manuscripts by Sumner discovered in the 1970s show that he came to reject the basic premises of Social Darwinism by 1900.<ref> Norman Erik Smith, "William Graham Sumner as an Anti-Social Darwinist." ''Pacific Sociological Review'' 1979 22(3): 332-347. 0030-8919.  Sumner’s apparent support for Social Darwinism as stated in ''The Science of Society'' (1927, printed 17 years after Sumner's death) was actually the thought of Albert Galloway Keller, with whom he collaborated. Norman E. Smith and Roscoe C. Hinkle, "Sumner Versus Keller and the Social Evolutionism of Early American Sociology." ''Sociological Inquiry'' 1979 49(1): 41-48. 0038-0245. </ref> Sumner's thought was a synthesis of Scottish Common Sense Realism, classical [[republicanism]], and [[laissez-faire]] economics. His synthesis continues to inform much of modern conservative social thought. Sumner's opposition to the Spanish-American War in 1898 emerged from his fear that imperialism would undermine republican government by strengthening the hand of the plutocracy, "the political power of capital."<ref> Pickens (1987)</ref>   

==Bibliography==

==Bibliography==

* Curtis, Bruce. ''William Graham Sumner.'' (Twayne's United States Authors Series, no. 391.) (1981) 186 pp. on Sumner as a writer

* Curtis, Bruce. ''William Graham Sumner.'' (Twayne's United States Authors Series, no. 391.) (1981) 186 pp. on Sumner as a writer