John Bates Clark

Book excerpt: In this fresh study of the career and theoretical work of John Bates Clark, the first American economist to achieve international standing, Henry demonstrates that the usual interpretations of Clark are flawed, and that Clark set out to develop a theory of distribution that would support then current political authority and property relationships. Contrary to the normal view, it is shown that there is less of a difference between Clark's early 'Christian Socialist' writings and the writings of his mature period, and that perceptions and concerns formulated in his early career carry over into his more theoretically advanced stage. Also, Clark's religious perceptions are shown to have influenced not only his early thoughts, but those contained in the writings of the later period that brought him to the attention of economists in England and the Continent. Throughout this book, Henry demonstrates the relationship between Clark's theoretical work and the larger social forces then at work which both promoted and constrained his thinking and his economics.