On the Origins of The American Journal of Economics and Sociology: Its Purposes and Objectives

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, The, April, 2001 by Will Lissner

In 1960 I met the woman who was to become my wife, Dorothy Burnham, She was a writer and I soon recruited her to take on the job of assistant editor of the Journal.

When we married she suggested to me that we try to make the Journal outstanding in its field. I was happy to agree and not much later I retired early from the Times so we were able to concentrate entirely on the Journal. When Dorothy had come aboard, academics were being criticized for writing obscurely in the hope that such writing would make them appear more scholarly. Dorothy abhorred that kind of writing and insisted that the articles we got ready to be printed in the Journal had to be written clearly and gracefully, and if they weren't she would edit them until they were.

One day when she was editing an article she turned to me and said in exasperation, "I think this guy must have gotten his Ph.D. with box tops." I laughed and it became a joke we shared. Every now and again I would tell her, "Here's another article from an author whose Ph.D. came from box tops."

Sometime during the years that followed, a canvass was taken by specialists in economics that showed there were about 350 economic journals in the world. Another study set out to rate these journals annually and we were elated to learn that the AJES placed among the first 25, year after year.

As I aged, Tommy Larkin of the Schalkenbach board began to worry about what the Foundation would do if something happened to me and I couldn't go on as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal. We needed to have someone in the wings as backup, he insisted. Dorothy was asked if she would be willing to take over the office, but she adamantly refused. If she were not helping me on the Journal, she said, she preferred to work in the field in which she had last gotten a degree--psychology.

Tommy then suggested that a committee be formed to search for somebody to take over when I retired. This was done and later when we did retire Professor Frank Genovese of Babson College and his wife Eleanor were chosen as our successors.

They did an excellent job of continuing what we had started until they too retired and Professor Laurence Moss, also from Babson College, became Editor-in-Chief.

I have mentioned several ways in which I believe the Journal pioneered, It introduced the interdisciplinary approach. It promoted the study of Henry George. It encouraged the study of competitive capitalism as the ideal economic system. It promoted the study of monopolistic capitalism so as to define the types of monopoly of which it consisted. It formed the rule that scientific terms in the social sciences must be defined, adroitly, when they are used. It advanced the idea that academic writing must exhibit grace and clarity like all good writing and the requirement that criticism of scientific reports must be designed to improve them. And, finally, it strengthened the idea that editors of scientific journals should welcome younger and minority scholars.

(*.)Will Lissner was the founding editor of The American can Journal of Economics and Sociology, starting it in 1941 while working full-time as a reporter for the New York Times. Born in 1908, Will died on March 25, 2000 after a long bout with double pneumonia and a long lifetime of interest in ideas, world politics, and social science. He was a great editor who labored zealously on behalf of the AJES, in which his interest never waned, sharing information and offering kind advice to its current editor up to a few months before his death. His contributions were remembered in the obituary that appeared in the New York Times, subtitled"'Times Reporter Who Specialized in Economics."