author
Francis Amasa Walker
1840–1897
A Civil War officer turned leading economist, he helped shape how Americans thought about labor, wages, and statistics in the late 19th century. He also guided MIT through an important period of growth and became one of the best-known public intellectuals of his day.
1 Audiobook
The Indian Question
by Francis Amasa Walker
About the author
Born in Boston on July 2, 1840, Francis Amasa Walker studied at Amherst College and first planned a legal career. The Civil War changed that path: he served in the Union Army, was wounded and captured, and later received the brevet rank of major general for his service.
After the war, Walker became a major figure in American public life through economics, statistics, and education. He led the federal censuses of 1870 and 1880, wrote widely on political economy, and challenged older ideas about wages by arguing that workers were paid from current production rather than from a fixed fund set aside in advance. His work helped make economics and statistics more visible as modern academic fields in the United States.
Walker is also remembered as the third president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, serving from 1881 until his death on January 5, 1897. Under his leadership, MIT expanded its reputation and ambitions, while Walker himself remained active in national scholarly life, including leadership roles in the American Statistical Association and the American Economic Association.