Charles A. (Charles Austin) Beard

Born in Indiana in 1874, Charles Austin Beard became one of the most prominent American historians of the early 20th century. He taught at Columbia University and built a wide readership through works on U.S. history, political institutions, and the place of economics in public life.

He is especially remembered for An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (1913), a book that argued the framers of the Constitution were influenced in part by their material interests. Beard later wrote widely on American civilization, government, and foreign policy, often in collaboration with his wife, the historian Mary Ritter Beard.

His interpretations sparked debate in his own time and long after his death in 1948. Even where later scholars disagreed with him, his work remained important for forcing readers to ask who benefits from political decisions and how history itself gets written.