John Rogers Commons

Commons, John Rogers

 

Born Oct. 13, 1862, in Hollandsburg, Ohio; died May 11, 1945. American economic historian and sociologist. Professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin from 1904.

Commons was the founder of what is known as the Commons-Wisconsin orientation in the American historiography of the labor movement. He was the first in American historical science to single out the economic factor as a determining aspect in the development of the labor movement. At the same time, he remained a vulgar economist, advocating pragmatism in the evaluation of the tasks and nature of the movement.

WORKS

Labor and Administration. New York, 1913.
Industrial Goodwill. New York, 1919.
Trade Unionism and Labor Problems. Boston-New York, 1921.
Industrial Government. New York, 1921.
History of Labor in the United States, vols. 1–4. New York, 1918–35. (Coauthor.)
Institutional Economics, vols. 1–2. Madison, 1959.
Legal Foundations of Capitalism. Madison. 1959.