William Graham Sumner

William Graham Sumner ( born October 30, 1840 in Paterson, New Jersey, † April 12, 1910 in New Haven, Connecticut) was a professor of sociology at Yale University. At the same time he was the leading U.S. proponent of an industrial free-trade company, which understood his opinion, the Socialists under " capitalism ".

As a sociologist, he developed the concepts of diffusion, the folk customs and ethnocentrism. Sumner's work led him to the belief that reform attempts were useless. He was a staunch advocate of laissez- faire economics and an intellectual defense of free trade. In its heyday it was everywhere Sumner clubs. He strongly criticized socialism and communism, then the emerging competition. Edward Bellamy he designated by name as an opponent. This published its national variant of socialism in Looking Backward (1888 ) and the much more successful sequel Equality. The clash of their ideas formed the background of the governments of Cleveland, McKinley and T. Roosevelt.

Sumner 1908 was the second president of the American Sociological Association.