Joseph John Spengler (19 November 1902 – 2 January 1991) was an American economist, statistician, and historian of economic thought.
[Kelley (March 1992), p. 142] A recipient of the 1951 John Frederick Lewis Award of the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...
and the 1981 Distinguished Fellow Award from the
History of Economics Society
The History of Economics Society (HES) is a learned society in the field of the history of economics and economic methodology, which was formally established in May 1974. Since its creation, the HES has served an international community.
The HES ...
, he was
Professor Emeritus
''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...
of Economics at
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
at the time of his death.
Biography
Spengler was born in
Piqua, Ohio
Piqua ( ) is a city in Miami County, southwest Ohio, United States, 27 miles north of Dayton. The population was 20,522 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area.
It was founded as the village of Washington in ...
. He graduated from the
Piqua High School
Piqua High School is a public high school in Piqua, Ohio, United States, and is the only high school in the Piqua City Schools district. The current high school was completed in 1981 and sits adjacent to Alexander Stadium, completed in 2001. The s ...
and initially studied journalism at college, but dropped out after his first year to become a crime reporter. A year later he returned to higher education, at first studying sociology and political science, but eventually gravitating to economics. He received his B.A., M.A., and PhD from
Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...
, where his 1930 doctoral dissertation was a comparative study on the fertility rates of native-born and immigrant women in the United States. After a stint teaching at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory.
T ...
he joined the faculty of
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...
in 1932, initially as a visiting professor, and became a permanent member of the faculty in 1934. He was to remain there until his retirement as the
James B. Duke Professor At Duke University, the title of James B. Duke Professor is given to a small number of the faculty with extraordinary records of achievement. At some universities, titles like "distinguished professor", "institute professor", or " regents professo ...
of Economics in 1972. With
Earl J. Hamilton
Earl Jefferson Hamilton (1899 – 7 May 1989) was an American historian, one of the founders of economic history, and a prominent hispanist.
Biography
Hamilton was born in Houlka, Mississippi.
He was married to Gladys Dallas Hamilton, and had ...
, Spengler established the university's first graduate level program in Economic History as well as the History of Political Economy (HOPE) research group.
During World War II, he worked for the
Office of Price Administration
The Office of Price Administration (OPA) was established within the Office for Emergency Management of the United States government by Executive Order 8875 on August 28, 1941. The functions of the OPA were originally to control money (price contr ...
as the price executive for the
Southeastern region of the United States and over the years held several other advisory posts to the US government and the United Nations. His interest in population studies and the demographic aspects of economics reflected in his doctoral dissertation, became a major focus of his research and writing throughout his career. His first book, ''France Faces Depopulation'', published in 1938, examined the cultural and political causes of France's pre-World War II population decline, and one of his last major books was ''The Economics of Individual and Population Aging'', published in 1980. In 1972, Duke University Press published a collection of his classic essays in the area: ''Population Economics: Selected Essays of Joseph J. Spengler''.
Joseph Spengler died in
Durham, North Carolina
Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...
from
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
at the age of 88.
[Cook (3 January 1991)] He was survived by his wife, the former Dorothy Marie Kress. The couple married in 1927 and were co-authors of "Maintenance of Postwar Full Employment" (1944). Spengler's 1978 book, ''Facing Zero Population Growth: Reactions and Interpretations, Past and Present'' has the dedication:
To Dorothy Kress Spengler, my wife, companion, and co-worker for fifty years
In 2004, the History of Economics Society established the annual Joseph J. Spengler Prize for the best book published on the history of economics.
[History of Economics Society]
Joseph J. Spengler Prize
Selected publications of Joseph J. Spengler
* 1938. ''France Faces Depopulation''. Duke Univ. Press. First-page chapter-previe
links* 1950. "Vertical Integration and Antitrust Policy," ''Journal of Political Economy'', 58(4),
p. 347352 (from
JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...
).
* 1951. "The Population Obstacle to Economic Betterment," ''American Economic Review'', 41(2),
p. 343354.
* 1964. "Economic Thought of Islam: Ibn Khaldun," ''Comparative Studies in Society and History'', 6(3),
p. 268306.
* 1966. "Values and Fertility Analysis," ''Demography'', 3(1),
p. 109130.
* 1966. "The Economist and the Population Question," ''American Economic Review'', 56(1/2), pp. 1–24
* 1972. ''Population Economics: Selected Essays of Joseph J. Spengler'', Robert S. Smith ''et al.'', ed. Duke Univ. Press. Revie
extract.* 1980. ''Origins of Economic Thought and Justice'', Southern Illinois University Press. 1st-page chapte
links
* 1980. ''The Economics of Individual and Population Aging''. With Robert L. Clark
Description& chapter-previe
linkson
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 ...
.
Notes and references
Sources
*Cook, Joan
"Joseph Spengler, 88, Economics Professor At Duke University" ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', 3 January 1991.
*Cook, Robert Cecil (ed.), "Spengler, Joseph John"
''Who's Who in American Education: A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Living Educators of the United States'' Volume 8, 1938
*
Durden, Robert Franklin
Robert Franklin Durden (May 10, 1925 - March 4, 2016) was an American historian and author at who worked at Duke University. He wrote books about Duke's history, journalist James S. Pike, and historian Carter G. Woodson.
He was born in Graymont, ...
''The Launching of Duke University, 1924-1949'' Duke University Press, 1993.
*Kelley, Allen C.
"Joseph J. Spengler (November 19, 1902-January 2, 1991)" ''Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society'', Vol. 136, No. 1, (March 1992), pp. 142–147
*Silk, Leonard
''New York Times'', 4 January 1991
*Spengler, Dorothy K. and Spengler, Joseph J, "Maintenance of Postwar Full Employment" in ''The Winning Plans in the Pabst Postwar Employment Awards'',
Pabst Brewing Company
The Pabst Brewing Company () is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and was, by 1889, named after Frederick Pabst. It is currently a holding company which contracts the brewing of over ...
, 1944, pp. 79–83
*Spengler, Joseph J
''Facing Zero Population Growth: Reactions and Interpretations, Past and Present'' Duke University Press, 1978.
;Further reading
*
Blaug, Mark (ed.), "Spengler, Joseph L.", ''Who's Who in Economics'' (3d edition), E. Elgar, 1999.
* Silk, Leonard
"The Economics of Joseph J. Spengler" ''Demography India'', 14 (1), 1986, pp. 137–145
* Sobel, Irvin, "Joseph J. Spengler: The Institutionalist Approach to the History of Economics" in ''Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology'', Vol.1, 1983, pp. 243–270.
External links
Duke University, January 14, 1972
CV: Joseph J. Spengler Duke University Archives.
Joseph J. Spengler Duke University
Joseph_John_Spengler_Papers,_[ca._1896/nowiki>-1987.html" ;"title="a. 1896
">Joseph John Spengler Papers, [ca. 1896
/nowiki>-1987">a. 1896">Joseph John Spengler Papers, [ca. 1896
/nowiki>-1987 David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spengler, Joseph J.
1902 births
1991 deaths
Ohio State University College of Arts and Sciences alumni
Ohio State University faculty
University of Arizona faculty
University of Chicago faculty
University of Pittsburgh faculty
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty
Duke University faculty
Historians of economic thought
Fellows of the American Statistical Association
20th-century American historians
Presidents of the American Economic Association
Distinguished Fellows of the American Economic Association
Economists from Arizona
20th-century American economists
Ohio State University Graduate School alumni