Richard T. Ely, 1854-1943.

Considered by some as a German Historicist in American clothing, Richard T. Ely was one of the prominent proponents of the historical method in America and thus a leading forerunner of the American Institutionalist School.  He was the teacher and mentor of both John R. Commons and Wesley C. Mitchell.

Ely was educated at Columbia and spent three years at Heidelberg, obtaining his doctorate in 1879.  Upon his return to America, he joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University, then the first American university to give "serious" graduate degrees.  Ely's efforts to transplant German Historicism into American academia led to a bitter methodological battle in the 1880s with his conservative colleague, Simon Newcomb -- who, it is said, eventually engineered Ely's dismissal from Hopkins in 1892.  

In an attempt to emulate Schmoller's Verein für Sozialpolitik on American soil, Richard Ely was, with Seligman and Adams, the organizer and founder of the American Economic Association (AEA) in 1885. The AEA became quickly embroiled in the raging methodological controversy between old school conservatives and new school historicists.  The AEA eventually abandoned Ely's vision as a normative body for social progress to become a more staid professional organization.  The AEA still attaches Ely's name to its yearly distinguished lecture.

In 1892, Ely migrated to the "progressive" University of Wisconsin with his pupil John R. Commons.  It was under Ely that the empirical and labor bent long since associated with the University of Wisconsin was initiated.  It quickly became the primary breeding ground for the new generation which was to become the American Institutionalist school.

Ely's position on labor movements and Christian socialism eventually got him in trouble again. The University of Wisconsin's controversial " trial" of Ely in 1894 led to a rallying of American scholars in defense of academic freedom in the U.S..  Ely's work on labor movements abated slowly as Ely grew increasingly conservative and concentrated on land economics. However, 

Major works of Richard T. Ely

• "American Colleges and German Universities", 1880, Harper's
• "German Cooperative Credit Unions", 1881, Atlantic Monthly
• French and German Socialism in Modern Time, 1883.
• "The Past and the Present of Political Economy", 1883, Overland Monthly.
• "The Prussian Civil Service", 1883, Overland Monthly
• The Past and the Present of Political Economy, 1884
• "Pullman: A Social Study", 1885, Harper's
• "Ethics and Economics", 1886, Science.
• "Arbitration", 1886, North American Review
• The Labor Movement in America, 1886.
• "Social Studies. I. The Nature of the Railway Problem", 1886, Harper's
• "Social Studies - II. The Economic Evils in American Railway Methods", 1886, Harper's
• "Social Studies - III. The Reform of Railway Abuses", 1886, Harper's
• "Socialism in America", 1886, North American Rev.
• "Political Economy in America", 1887, North American Rev.
• "Social Studies. - I. The Nature and Significance of Corporations", 1887, Harper's
• "Social Studies. - II. The Growth of Corporations", 1887, Harper's
• "Social Studies. - III. The Future of Corporations", 1887, Harper's
• Taxation in American States and Cities, 1888.
• An Introduction to Political Economy, 1889.
• "The Telegraph Monopoly", 1889, North American Rev.
• "A Programme for Labor Reform", 1890, Century
• "Pauperism in the United States", 1891, North American Rev.
• "The Inheritance of Property", 1891, North American Rev.
• Outlines of Economics, 1893.
• "Natural Monopolies and the Workingman. A Programme of Social Reform", 1894, North American Review
• "Fraternalism vs. Paternalism in Government", 1898, Century
• Monopolies and Trusts, 1900.
• Studies in the Evolution of Industrial Society, 1903.
• "Review of Taussig's Principles of Economics", 1912, AER
• Property and Contract in their Relation to the Distribution of Wealth, 1914.
• "Review of Property: Its duties and rights", 1914, AER
• "Russian Land Reform", 1916, AER
• "Landed Property as an Economic Concept and as a Field of Research", 1917, AER - commentary
• "Private Colonization of the Land", 1918, AER
• "Tenancy in an Ideal System of Landownership" with C.J. Galpin, 1919, AER
• Ground Under Our Feet: An autobiography, 1938.
• Natural Monopolies and the Workingman. A Programme of Social Reform 
  

Resources on Richard T. Ely

• HET Pages: American Economic Association and the Richard T. Ely Lecture
• "Review of Ely's Property and Contract", by J.H. Underwood, 1915, AER
• R.T. Ely on the Social Law of Service by Charles Rounds, 1918
• American Economic Association Website
• The R.T. Ely Trial and Academic Freedom by W. Lee Hansen
• Economists at Wisconsin, edited by R.J. Lampman.
• Biography of Ely at Wisconsin
• Several Portraits of Richard T. Ely at Wisconsin: (1), (2), (3),
• Portrait of a bearded Ely