William Graham Sumner (1840-1910) was a Yale Professor, author, and classical liberal who supported many free market principles and laissez-faire economics during the Gilded Age.

Sumner was born in New Jersey and eventually attended Yale College where he graduated in 1863. Sumner was able to avoid being drafted to fight in the Union Army during the Civil War and soon moved to Europe to continue his schooling where he developed language skills and studied history and theology. 

Sumner returned to the US and remained at Yale his entire career, teaching and writing on a variety of subjects from political science to imperialism to laissez-faire economic policy. 

Sumner was a strong defender of free markets and the trade within them, regularly critiquing state-led socialism and its economic inconsistencies with reality. He also promoted the gold standard in an attempt to hold the US Federal Bank accountable for money printing and inflation. Sumner believed the economy was most efficient when the government was limited in its ability to intervene, instead favoring the theory that markets would effectively adjust over time to best fit the needs of consumers and producers without requiring extensive modes of regulation and oversight.

At the crossroads of economics and philosophy is where Sumner coined the term “forgotten man.” In a series of 1883 essays and speeches, he argues that this term is attributed to those that are left behind in a sense by those that are a part of government bureaucracy. As those in power advocate for additional power, dance on the theatre that is American politics, and pull at the heart strings of potential voters, the “forgotten man” lives a fairly monotonous lifestyle where he is deemed obsolete. 

Sumner writes, “He is the man who never is thought of. He is the victim of the reformer, social speculator and philanthropist, and I hope to show you before I get through that he deserves your notice both for his character and for the many burdens which are laid upon him…He works, he votes, generally he prays, but his chief business in life is to pay.”

In sociology, Sumner devoted his time to the understanding of anthropology and morality within the realm of culture. By explaining that manners and customs are ingrained in a society’s people and therefore, impacting their moral code of the time, Sumner made the case that government reform and legislation was usually ineffective in policing a peoples’ morality. 

Sumner’s legacy is one that transmits faith in the ability of individuals to act as independent agents whether that be within society or while engaging in the markets. Themes of freedom seem to span across his areas of study and his work has continued to be studied today in the fields of political science and sociology.

Sources:

Wiki entry

Britannica Profile