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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 by the 1870s was publishing powerful, widely read essays denouncing economic fallacies and political evils and promoting what he deemed sound governmental principles. His essays proved so keen in analysis, flawless in logic, and full of fire that they attracted national attention and are read by conservatives in the 21st century. Their titles grabbed the reader's attention: "The Absurd Attempt to Make the World Over," "That It Is Not Wicked to Be Rich; Nay, Even, That It Is Not Wicked to Be Richer Than One's Neighbor," "Protectionism, the --Ism Which Teaches that Waste Makes Wealth," "Prosperity Strangled by Gold," "The Delusion of the Debtors," "The Conquest of the United States by Spain."
He treated most of the great issues of the [[Gilded Age]]. His method was to go to the basic issues of equality, rights, duty, and liberty, stripping away traditional and sentimental trappings. Sumner was a leading advocate of a sound monetary system, opposed free silver, [[bimetalism]], and all inflationary expedients. Like most economistgs he favored free trade and denounced high tariffs--as a prosperity measure tariffs were fallacious, and from a moral point of view, pernicious. He did not campaign for politicians, buyt his views most closely resembled the [[Bourbon Democrats]] like Prfesident [[Grover Cleveland]].
Sumner deplored populist attacks on "big business," and said the evolution of monopolistic trusts was a natural and useful advance. He vigorously opposed any intrusion by the government upon the industrial field, maintaining that state interference could not be scientific, or even intelligent. Again and again he stressed that the remedies would be worse than the disease. His theoretical arguments against socialism were powerful.
Sumner was a major leader in [[civil service reform]]. In thelate 1890s he was one of the few major figures who opposed the [[Spanish-American War]]. He was one of many anti-imperialists who opposed the annexation of the Philippines in 1899.
Though he is usually classed as an advocate of laissez-faire, it was only to what he called "empiricism," unintelligent experimentation and social panaceas, that he was opposed. That social conditions can be improved he firmly believed, but such improvement can come, he was convinced, only by scientific procedure carried on by thoroughly informed individuals. In a democracy, therefore, the right kind of education is of supreme importance.
SUmner took no prisoners, storming the intellectual redoubts of the enemy without fear or quarter. He was inspired by strong moral convictions, and with hatred of shams, loose thinking, sentimental motive, and especially of jobbery and injustice.
Sumner was especially solicitous for the "Forgotten Man," introduced in his 1883 lecture. For Sumner the "Forgotten Man" was the self-supporting and self-respecting person who has to bear the cost of all the political bungling and the social quackery. "I affirm that there is always somebody who pays, and that it is always the sober, honest, industrious, economical men or women, who attend no meetings, pass no resolutions, never go to the lobby, are never mentioned in the newspapers, but just work and save and pay."
===Social Darwinist?===
===Social Darwinist?===
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> Bannister (1973); 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>
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> Bannister (1973); 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>
Sumner has often been called a dogmatic defender of laissez-faire and of conservative social Darwinism. But an examination of his unpublished essay of 1909, "On the Concentration of Wealth", reveals that he changed his mind. In his 1909 essay he shows his concern for pervasive corporate monopoly as a threat to social equality and democratic government. His analysis was akin to that of a [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilsonian]] Progressive, although his remedies were vague and incomplete. This stand against plutocracy was consistent with his life and consisted of a long defense of a middle-class society against the pressures of greedy self-interest groups and demos, the mob. Earlier he was most concerned with threats from corrupt politicians. Later plutocracy threatened the middle classes through abuses which might have led to class warfare.<ref> Curtis 1969)</ref>
Sumner has often been called a dogmatic defender of laissez-faire and of conservative social Darwinism. But an examination of his unpublished essay of 1909, "On the Concentration of Wealth", reveals that he changed his mind. In his 1909 essay he shows his concern for pervasive corporate monopoly as a threat to social equality and democratic government. His analysis was akin to that of a [[Woodrow Wilson|Wilsonian]] Progressive, although his remedies were vague and incomplete. This stand against plutocracy was consistent with his life and consisted of a long defense of a middle-class society against the pressures of greedy self-interest groups and demos, the mob. Earlier he was most concerned with threats from corrupt politicians. Later plutocracy threatened the middle classes through abuses which might have led to class warfare.<ref> Curtis 1969)</ref>
==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==