Benjamin Fletcher Wright
Benjamin Fletcher Wright Jr. (8 February 1900 – 28 November 1976) was an American jurists, academic and legal historian. He served for a decade as president of Smith College.[1]
Biography
Wright was born in Austin, Texas, the son of Benjamin Fletcher and Mary (née Blanford) Wright. He attended the University of Texas, where he earned his BA and MA degrees in 1921 and to Harvard, where, in 1925, he earned his Ph.D.[1]
He was a member of the University of Texas faculty from 1922 to 1926. In 1926, Wright married Alexa Rhea, and they had two children.[1] Wright taught at Harvard from 1926 until moving to Smith College in 1949. While at Harvard, he served as chairman of the Government department and served on the special Harvard Committee on General Education. He was one of the authors of the renowned report published by the Committee titled, “General Education in a Free Society” (1945).[1]
During his decade as the fifth president of Smith College (1949–1959), Wright made notable contributions to the honors program and the interdepartmental majors.[1] After leaving Smith, he spent a year as a fellow at the center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science, at Stanford University in California. The following year he returned to the University of Texas as a professor of government where he taught until the year before his death.[1]
Works
- The Merit System in the American States (1923)
- Source Book of the American Political Theory (1928)
- American Interpretations of Natural Law (1931)
- The Contract Clause in the Constitution (1938)
- The Growth of American Constitutional Law (1942)
- General Education in a Free Society (1945; contributor)
- Consensus and Continuity, 1777-1787 (1958)
Selected publications
- "The Philosophy of Jeffersonian Democracy," American Political Science Review 22 (1928), pp. 870–92.
- "American Democracy and the Frontier," Yale Review 20 (1930), pp. 349–65.
- "The Origins of the Separation of Powers in America," Economica 13 (1933), pp. 169–85.
- "Traditionalism in American Political Thought," International Journal of Ethics 48 (1937), pp. 86–97.
Collaborations
- "Political Institutions and the Frontier." In: Dixon Ryan Fox, ed., Sources of Culture in the Middle West: Backgrounds versus Frontier (1934).
- "The Early History of Written Constitutions in America." In: Carl Wittke, Ed., Essays in History and Political Theory in Honor of Charles Howard McIlwain (1936).
