On the Origins of American Business Leaders: Frank W. Taussig, Carl S. Joslyn and the “Brain Trust” of American Eugenics

Fiorito Luca and Massimiliano Vatiero. 2023. "On the Origins of American Business Leaders: Frank W. Taussig, Carl S. Joslyn and the “Brain Trust” of American Eugenics." Journal of Economic Issues, Volume LVII No. 4, pp. 1178-1195.

19 Pages Posted: 16 Sep 2019 Last revised: 19 Oct 2023

See all articles by Luca Fiorito

Luca Fiorito

University of Palermo

Massimiliano Vatiero

University of Trento; Università della Svizzera italiana

Date Written: September 8, 2019

Abstract

In their 1932 volume American Business Leaders: A Study in Social Origins and Social Stratification, Frank W. Taussig and Carl S. Joslyn, then a young Harvard graduate, argued that success in business depended more on innate superiority than on other environmental factors such as financial aid, influential connections, and formal education. The aim of this article is to analyze the main contentions of Taussig and Joslyn, as well as the intellectual genesis of, and the general reactions to, this controversial volume. Although our main focus is on Taussig and Joslyn, other figures, all directly affiliated with Harvard, will play a decisive role in our narrative—the economist Thomas Nixon Carver, the psychologist William McDougall, and the sociologist Pitirim Aleksandrovič Sorokin. This makes the scope of this article in many respects broader than its title may suggest—in the sense that it will allow us to place a work like American Business Leaders within the context of an important strand of social science research at Harvard during the interwar years.

Keywords: Taussig, Frank Williams, Eugenics, Hereditarianism, Business Leaders, Harvard

JEL Classification: B1, B15

Suggested Citation

Fiorito, Luca and Vatiero, Massimiliano, On the Origins of American Business Leaders: Frank W. Taussig, Carl S. Joslyn and the “Brain Trust” of American Eugenics (September 8, 2019). Fiorito Luca and Massimiliano Vatiero. 2023. "On the Origins of American Business Leaders: Frank W. Taussig, Carl S. Joslyn and the “Brain Trust” of American Eugenics." Journal of Economic Issues, Volume LVII No. 4, pp. 1178-1195., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3449955 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3449955

Luca Fiorito

University of Palermo ( email )

Viale delle Scienza
Palermo, Palermo 90128
Italy

Massimiliano Vatiero (Contact Author)

University of Trento ( email )

Via Inama, 5
Trento, Trento 38122
Italy

Università della Svizzera italiana ( email )

Via Giuseppe Buffi, n. 13
Lugano, Ticino 6900
Switzerland

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