John Bates Clark

This scholarly work traces how John Bates Clark built his theory of distribution, centering on the marginal productivity theory and the forces that shaped its emergence. The author argues that Clark's ideas were driven and popularized by the economic and social upheavals of his time.

The book challenges the common view that Clark's early Christian Socialist writings differ sharply from his later mature work. It contends that continuity runs between the two periods, and that Clark's religious convictions are essential to understanding how he arrived at his mature theoretical position.

The author also weighs Clark's political outlook and his concern with threats to established authority. He examines what Clark believed his productivity theory was meant to accomplish, arguing that Clark thought economic theory should never be developed apart from existing authority and property relations, and should instead defend both.