Commons, John Rogers

Commons, John Rogers, 1862–1945, American economist, b. Hollansburg, Ohio, grad. Oberlin, 1888. Influenced by the other social sciences, Commons tried to broaden the scope of economics, especially in his noted Legal Foundations of Capitalism (1924) and Institutional Economics (1934). He was also interested in immediate social problems, chiefly those dealing with labor, and served on many government commissions. Commons was one of the editors of A Documentary History of American Industrial Society (10 vol., 1910–11) and History of Labor in the United States (4 vol., 1919–35).

Bibliography

See his autobiography, Myself (1934); biography by L. G. Harter (1962).

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Commons, John Rogers (1882–1945) economist; born in Hollandsburg, Ohio. He was both an economic theorist and a renowned labor historian. Without ever completing his graduate studies, he was able to secure teaching positions including a professorship at the University of Wisconsin in 1904. An active policymaker, he drafted early employment and union legislation in Wisconsin and then at the federal level.