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Henry Carter Adams (December 31, 1851 – August 11, 1921) was a U.S. economist and Professor of Political Economy and finance at the University of Michigan.


Early years

Adams was born in Davenport, Iowa on December 31, 1851, son of Ephraim Adams and Elizabeth S.A. Douglass, and grandson of Ephraim Adams, of
New Ipswich, New Hampshire New Ipswich is a New England town, town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 5,204 at the 2020 census. New Ipswich, situated on the Massachusetts border, includes the villages ...
. His father was a missionary of the " Iowa Band" from New England. He graduated from
Iowa College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-stu ...
in 1874, now called Grinnell College, which was co-founded by his father. Adams's middle name Carter acknowledged a benefactor of Grinnell College. He was superintendent of schools at Nassau, Iowa, from 1874 to 1875, and became fellow of political economy at Johns Hopkins University, from 1876 to 1889. He went to Andover Theological School in 1878, then studied at Heidelberg, Berlin, and at the
Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...
in Paris, from 1878 to 1879. He received the degree
Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
, from Johns Hopkins in 1878, and the honorary degree
LL.D. Legum Doctor (Latin: “teacher of the laws”) (LL.D.) or, in English, Doctor of Laws, is a doctorate-level academic degree in law or an honorary degree, depending on the jurisdiction. The double “L” in the abbreviation refers to the early ...
from
Iowa College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-stu ...
in 1898. Adams' degree was one of the first four PhDs to be awarded by Hopkins, which opened in 1876.


Career

Adams became a lecturer at
Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
, from 1880 to 1883, and associate professor of political science there, from 1883 to 1887, also lecturer on political science at the University of Michigan, from 1880 to 1887, and professor of political economy and finance there from 1887 until his death. He also became a lecturer at the Johns Hopkins University from 1880 to 1882. While at Cornell, he delivered an address on "The Labor Problem," which resulted in his dismissal from the Cornell faculty when a critic accused him of "sapping the foundations of our society." In his first year at Michigan he becoming head of the newly created Department of Economics. "For him economics was more than a study of data and statistics; he saw it as the very bone and sinews of our national life...."University of Michigan
The Michigan Alumnus 12
/ref> At Michigan, he also worked with
John Dewey John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the fi ...
. He was appointed statistician of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887 and was in charge of the transportation department in the eleventh
U.S. Census, 1890 The United States census of 1890 was taken beginning June 2, 1890, but most of the 1890 census materials were destroyed in 1921 when a building caught fire and in the subsequent disposal of the remaining damaged records. It determined the reside ...
. He was elected a member of the International Statistical Institute, was president of the
American Economic Association The American Economic Association (AEA) is a learned society in the field of economics. It publishes several peer-reviewed journals acknowledged in business and academia. There are some 23,000 members. History and Constitution The AEA was est ...
, from 1895 to 1897, vice-president of the
American Statistical Association The American Statistical Association (ASA) is the main professional organization for statisticians and related professionals in the United States. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts on November 27, 1839, and is the second oldest continuousl ...
, secretary of the Michigan Political Science Association, and served as associate editor of the
International Journal of Ethics ''Ethics: An International Journal of Social, Political, and Legal Philosophy'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1890 as the ''International Journal of Ethics'', renamed in 1938, and published since 1923 by the University of ...
.


Personal life

In 1890, he married Bertha Wright of Port Huron and they had three sons, Henry Carter Adams Jr., later with the
International Mercantile Marine The International Mercantile Marine Company, originally the International Navigation Company, was a trust formed in the early twentieth century as an attempt by J.P. Morgan to monopolize the shipping trade. IMM was founded by shipping magnates ...
at New York City, Dr. Theodore W. Adams, later on the staff of Doctor Reuben Peterson, and Thomas H. Adams, a senior in the University of Michigan. Adams died on August 11, 1921, in
Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all ...
.


Works

He published: * ''Lectures on Political Economy'' (1881) * ''History of Taxation in the United States, 1789 to 1816'' (1884) * ''Public Debts'' (1887) * ''The State in Relation to Industrial Action'' (1887) * ''Relation of American Municipalities to Quasi-Public Works'' (1888) * ''The Science of Finance'' (1888), which was later translated into the Japanese language. * ''Statistics of Railways in the United States'' (6 vols., 1888–1898) * ''Economics and Jurisprudence'' (1897) *
Description of Industry: An Introduction to Economics
' (1918)


References

Attribution * *


External links

* *
University of Michigan biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Henry Carter 1851 births 1921 deaths People from Davenport, Iowa Grinnell College alumni Andover Newton Theological School alumni Heidelberg University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Cornell University faculty University of Michigan faculty Economists from Iowa Presidents of the American Economic Association American expatriates in Germany School superintendents in Iowa