Nathan Austin Weston

Background

Nathan Austin Weston was born at Champaign, Ill. , the son of Nathan and Jane (Cloyd) Weston.

Education

He prepared for college in the local high school and in 1889 received the degree of B. L. from the University of Illinois. While teaching he carried on graduate study in economics and history, was awarded a fellowship in the University of Wisconsin, and received the degree of M. L. from the University of Illinois in 1898.

Career

The next four years after receiving the degree were spent in teaching in the public schools, and he became an instructor in the academy of the University in 1893. He was a fellow at Cornell University and in 1899-1900 an assistant in political economy there. He received the Ph. D. degree from Cornell in 1901. In 1910-11 he studied at the University of Berlin. He was called to the University of Illinois in 1900, where he became professor in 1919. In 1908 he was made assistant director of the courses in business administration and in 1915 acting dean of the College of Commerce. At his own request he was relieved of these administrative duties in 1919 and devoted himself entirely to his teaching, after 1920 to the teaching of graduate students only. He continued, however, to serve on numerous important committees, and his sound judgment and tolerance were highly valued by his colleagues. His great work was teaching. His students found him a wise counselor and inspiring teacher, who insisted on a broad and rigorous training and stimulated them not only to acquire a wide knowledge of their fields but also to sharpen their ability to analyze data critically and to think logically. One of his special interests was the development of the quantity theory of money. He steadfastly refused to write in his field, holding that its existing literature was already unnecessarily voluminous and much of it superficial and repetitious. A follower of the ideas of Alfred Marshall, he thought that little that was new had been added to the field of economic theory in the past forty years, and that much of that was unimportant.

Achievements

• His influence on the study of economics was widespread and important, carried by the large number of those who studied under him. His own library was notable for its size and the range of its economic subjects. His knowledge of the history of economic thought was profound, and he is to be regarded as one of the foremost American students of orthodox classical economic doctrine. His published papers in the field of economics were: a statistical inquiry into The Cost of Production of Corn in Illinois in 1896 (1898); "The Study of the National Monetary Commission" in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science of January 1922; and "The Ricardian Epoch in American Economics, " a masterly analysis in the American Economic Review of March 1933.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Cost of Production of Corn and Oats in Illinois in 1896

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • The cost of production of corn and oats in Illinois in 1896

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Personality

He was himself a man of wide reading, professional and cultural, and unusually well acquainted with the literature of economics.

Connections

On September 4, 1894, he was married to Angelina Gayman of Champaign. They had two children.

Father:

Nathan Weston

Mother:

Jane (Cloyd) Weston

Spouse:

Angelina Gayman