'The cause of our hard times.' Popular economic belief, popular economic movements, professional economists, and the expansion of the American state, 1877-1941

This dissertation addresses changes in popular conceptions of economics, the intellectual development and professionalization of academic economists, and the relationship between popular economic thought and academic economics during the period 1877-1941. It also evaluates the effect of both popular and professional economic ideas on politics, especially on the expansion of the federal government, and on the growth of popular movements like the Single-Tax and those led by Father Charles Coughlin and Dr. Francis Townsend. The analysis begins in the late nineteenth century, a period in which economics was a truly popular pursuit. Widespread knowledge of economics contributed to the development of a number of radical economic movements, including the Single-Tax and Populism. In the last fifteen years of the century, academic economists began to make some headway toward professionalization. The increasing complexity of their studies made it more difficult for the lay population to keep up with "cutting edge" economic thought. Because they were still accorded little respect by the public, the professionalizing economists believed that they would only be able to achieve societal influence through roles as advisors in an expanded state. As a result, they labored to contribute to the idea of the need for an expanded government in the early part of the twentieth century. By 1933, academic economists had made great strides in strengthening their profession and they had become important advisors within the federal government. Popular economics still thrived, however, and found expression in the great movements led by Father Charles Coughlin and Doctor Francis Townsend, which continued to endorse the idea that anyone could understand economics. Despite the success of these movements, by the 1930s many Americans did not believe that they could understand technical economics and as a result they began to concentrate on other types of economic ideas, particularly how to survive within the current economic system. Considered as a whole, the dissertation takes us from a world in which anyone could understand economics to one in which economics was moving beyond the ken of average Americans, and it analyzes the critical cultural, intellectual, and political ramifications of this shift.