Bertram Myron Gross (1912 in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
– March 12, 1997 in
Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about east of the city of Oakland. With a total population of 70,127 per the 2020 census, Walnut Creek ser ...
) was an American
social scientist
Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of socie ...
, federal bureaucrat and Professor of
Political Science
Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...
at
Hunter College
Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also admi ...
(CUNY). He is known from his book ''
Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America'' from 1980, and as primary author of the ''
HumphreyHawkins Full Employment Act''.
Early life and education
Gross was born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. He received his
B.A.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
and his
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in English from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
.
[Kenneth N. Gilpin (1997) "Bertram M. Gross, 84, Author of Full Employment Bills of 1944-45". In: ''New York Times'', March 15, 1997.]
Career
In the late 1930s, he started as a federal bureaucrat in Washington. From 1941 to 1945 he was a staff member of a number of
Senate committee
This is a complete list of U.S. congressional committees ( standing committees and select or special committees) that are operating in the United States Senate. Senators can be a member of more than one committee.
Standing committees
, there a ...
s. Here he wrote the Roosevelt-Truman full employment bills of 1944 and 1945, which led to the ''
Employment Act of 1946
The Employment Act of 1946 ch. 33, section 2, 60 Stat. 23, codified as , is a United States federal law. Its main purpose was to lay the responsibility of economic stability of inflation and unemployment onto the federal government. The Act stated: ...
.''
From 1946 to 1952 he was executive secretary of the President's
Council of Economic Advisers
The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the President of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...
and was among those who advocated making
Gross National Product
The gross national income (GNI), previously known as gross national product (GNP), is the total domestic and foreign output claimed by residents of a country, consisting of gross domestic product (GDP), plus factor incomes earned by foreign ...
a key measurement of the economy, which he later regretted. "I was one of the key figures pressing for it then. Who knew that pushing for growth would distort all human values and priorities?," he said.
In 1953, he moved with his family to
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, where he served as an economic advisor in the Prime Minister's Office and as a Visiting Professor at the
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; he, הַאוּנִיבֶרְסִיטָה הַעִבְרִית בִּירוּשָׁלַיִם) is a public research university based in Jerusalem, Israel. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Dr. Chaim Weiz ...
, where he established their program in Public Administration.
He returned to the United States in the 1960s and joined the faculty of
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
in the
Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs (Maxwell School) is the professional public policy school of Syracuse University, a private research university in Syracuse, New York. The school is organized in 11 academic departments and 13 ...
. In 196162, he was a Fellow at the
Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences
The Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) is an interdisciplinary research lab at Stanford University that offers a residential postdoctoral fellowship program for scientists and scholars studying "the five core social a ...
, Palo Alto; and, in 196263, he was the Leatherbee Lecturer at the Harvard Business School.
In 1970, Bertram Gross was president of the
Society for General Systems Research
The International Society for the Systems Sciences (ISSS) is a worldwide organization for systems sciences. The overall purpose of the ISSS is:
:"to promote the development of conceptual frameworks based on general system theory, as well as their ...
. From 1970 to 1982 he was Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Urban Affairs at Hunter College and the
CUNY Graduate Center
The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the Ci ...
.
Personal life
He was married to Nora Faine Gross and is survived by his second wife, Kusum Singh. He was the father of four sons, including Nobel Prize winner
David J. Gross
David Jonathan Gross (; born February 19, 1941) is an American theoretical physicist and string theorist. Along with Frank Wilczek and David Politzer, he was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery of asymptotic freedom. Gr ...
. Since 1999, the Campaign to Abolish Poverty/Full Employment Coalition presents the annual Bertram Gross Award.
Publications
Gross has written several books and articles. A selection:
[A full list can be found a]
getcited.org
. Retrieved June 8, 2011.
* 1953, "The Legislative Struggle: A Study in Social Combat", New York: McGraw Hill.
* 1954, ''The hard money crusade'', with Wilfred Lumer, Washington: Public Affairs Institute.
* 1963, ''An annotated bibliography on national economic planning'', Syracuse, N.Y.: Maxwell Graduate School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
* 1964, ''The managing of organizations: The administrative struggle New York: Free Press of Glencoe.''
* 1966, ''The state of the nation : social systems accounting'', New York : Tavistock Publications, 1966, 166 p.
* 1967, (eds.) ''Social goals and indicators for American society'', Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science.
* 1967, ''Action under planning: The guidance of economic development'', New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
* 1968, ''Organizations and their managing'', New York: Free Press.
* 1968, '' A great society?'', New York: Basic Books.
* 1970, ''Political intelligence for America's future'', with Michael Springer, Philadelphia: None.
* 1978, ''The Legislative Struggle: A Study in Social Combat'',Reprint of 1953 book. Conn.: Greenwood Press.
* 1980, ''
Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America'', New York: M. Evans.
* 1993, ''Legislative strategy: Shaping public policy'', with Edward V. Schneier, New York: St. Martin's Press.
* 1993, ''Congress today'', with Edward V. Schneier, New York: St. Martin's Press.
* 1993, ''Human rights for the 2lst century, foundations for responsible hope: A U.S. post Soviet dialogue Armonk,'', with Peter H. Juviler, V.A. Kartashkin & E.A. Lukasheva (eds.), New York: M.E. Sharpe.
References
External links
Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in Americaat
Google Books
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gross, Bertram Myron
1912 births
1997 deaths
American economics writers
American political writers
American anti-globalization writers
Hunter College faculty
Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Syracuse University faculty
American systems scientists
Jewish systems scientists
Jewish American social scientists
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American male writers
American male non-fiction writers
Harvard Business School people
20th-century American Jews
Presidents of the International Society for the Systems Sciences