Brain trust: Difference between revisions
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A '''brain trust''' refers to a group of smart advisers. The term evokes the era of [[trusts]] in the United States, which were institutions that controlled production of certain products (such as oil or steel). A brain trust thus refers to a group of advisers who control the intellectual and creative aspects of an organization. | |||
==Brains Trust in U.S. history== | |||
In U.S. history, the term "brains trust" was used to describe the group of advisers that President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] assembled to help him develop policies and legislation to address the [[Great Depression]]. The | |||
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==Roosevelt's "Brains Trust"== | |||
[[Franklin Roosevelt]] speechwriter and legal counsel [[Samuel Rosenman]] suggested having an academic team to advise Roosevelt in March 1932. This concept was perhaps based on [[The Inquiry]], a group of academic advisors President [[Woodrow Wilson]] formed in 1917 to prepare for the peace negotiations following [[World War I]]. In 1932, [[New York Times]] writer James Kieran first used the term '''Brains Trust''' (shortened to Brain Trust later) when he applied it to the close group of experts that surrounded United States presidential candidate [[Franklin Roosevelt]]. According to Roosevelt Brain Trust member [[Raymond Moley]], Kieran coined the term, however Rosenman contended that Louis Howe, a close advisor to the President, first used the term but used it derisively in a conversation with Roosevelt.<ref name="Safire 2008" /><ref>James Kieran "The 'Cabinet' Mr. Roosevelt Already Has", ''New York Times'', November 20, 1932, p. XX2. Roosevelt himself had recently tossed out the term when speaking to newsmen. Boller, ''Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush'' (Oxford University Press 2004) pg. 237-8 (available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=MpCTZQywq0YC&printsec=frontcover )</ref> | |||
The core of the first Roosevelt brain trust consisted of a group of Columbia law professors (Moley, Tugwell, and Berle). These men played a key role in shaping the policies of the First [[New Deal]] (1933). Although they never met together as a group, they each had Roosevelt's ear. Many newspaper editorials and editorial cartoons ridiculed them as impractical idealists. | |||
The core of the second Roosevelt brain trust sprang from men associated with the Harvard law school (Cohen, Corcoran, and Frankfurter). These men played a key role in shaping the policies of the Second New Deal (1935–1936). | |||
===Members=== | |||
*[[Adolf Berle]] - original Brain Trust | |||
*[[Benjamin Victor Cohen|Benjamin V. Cohen]] - 2nd New Deal | |||
*[[Thomas Gardiner Corcoran]] - 2nd New Deal | |||
*[[Felix Frankfurter]] - 2nd New Deal | |||
*[[Louis Howe]]* | |||
*[[Raymond Moley]] - original Brain Trust (Moley broke with Roosevelt and became a sharp critic of the [[New Deal]] from the right) | |||
*[[Basil O'Connor]] | |||
*[[Paul M. O'Leary]]<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/12/business/paul-o-leary-economist-is-dead-at-96.html?pagewanted=1 |title=Paul O'Leary, Economist, Is Dead at 96 |author=Saul Hansell |date=1998-01-12 |work= |publisher=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=6 March 2010}}</ref> | |||
*[[George Peek]] | |||
*[[Charles William Taussig]] | |||
*[[Rexford Tugwell]] - original Brain Trust | |||
*[[Hugh S. Johnson]] | |||
*[[Napoleon Hill]] | |||
*[[F. Palmer Weber]] | |||
*[[James Warburg]] - original Brain Trust{{citation needed|date=November 2008}}<!-- Well, he was an early adviser, but was he considered a member of the "brain trust"? | |||
==See also== | |||
{{wiktionarypar|brain trust}} | |||
*[[Kitchen Cabinet]] | |||
*[[Think tank]] | |||
==References== | |||
*Moley, Raymond. (1939). ''After seven years'' | |||
*Tugwell, Rexford. (1968). ''The Brains Trust'' | |||
*[http://www.nisk.k12.ny.us/fdr Editorial cartoons] | |||
*Rosen, Elliot. (1977). ''Hoover, Roosevelt, and the Brains Trust''. | |||
*McElvaine, Robert. (1984). ''The Great Depression: America 1929-1941'' | |||
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Revision as of 10:29, 24 June 2010
A brain trust refers to a group of smart advisers. The term evokes the era of trusts in the United States, which were institutions that controlled production of certain products (such as oil or steel). A brain trust thus refers to a group of advisers who control the intellectual and creative aspects of an organization.
Brains Trust in U.S. history
In U.S. history, the term "brains trust" was used to describe the group of advisers that President Franklin D. Roosevelt assembled to help him develop policies and legislation to address the Great Depression. The