William Graham Sumner

William Graham Sumner October 30, 1840 – April 12, 1910 was an American classical liberal social scientist. He taught social sciences at Yale, where he held a nation's first professorship in sociology. He was one of the nearly influential teachers at Yale or all other major school. Sumner wrote widely within the social sciences, with many books & essays on American history, economic history, political theory, sociology, as well as anthropology. He supported laissez-faire economics, free markets, and the gold standard. He adopted the term "ethnocentrism" to identify the roots of imperialism, which he strongly opposed, and as a spokesman against it he was in favor of the "forgotten man" of the middle class, a term he coined. He had a long-term influence on conservatism in the United States. He was the Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Sciences at Yale University.

"The Forgotten Man"

The theme of "the forgotten man" was developed by Sumner over a series of 11 essays published in 1883 in Harper's Weekly, and further developed in two speeches made that year. Sumner argued that, in his day, politics was being subverted by those proposing a "measure of relief for the evils which pretend caught public attention." He wrote:

As soon as A observes something which seems to him to be wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B thento get a law passed to remedy the evil and support X. Their law always proposes to established what C shall take for X or, in the better case, what A, B and C shall do for X. ... [W]hat I want to do is to look up C. ... I requested him the Forgotten Man. Perhaps the appellation is non strictly correct. 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 ago I get through that he deserves your notice both for his extension and for the many burdens which are laid upon him.

Sumner's "forgotten man" and its relationship to .