Robert C. (Robert Clarkson) Brooks

Robert C. Brooks was an American political scientist and professor, born in Piqua, Ohio, in 1874 and educated at Indiana University and Cornell University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1903. According to Swarthmore College’s archives, he also held assistant professorships at Halle, Berlin, and Cornell early in his career.

Brooks taught economics at Swarthmore College from 1904 to 1908, then served as a professor of economics at the University of Cincinnati from 1908 to 1912. He returned to Swarthmore in 1912 as the Joseph Wharton Professor of Political Science and remained there until retirement, building a reputation as a popular and highly regarded teacher.

He is remembered for books including Corruption in American Politics and Life and Political Parties and Electoral Problems. Archival records show that his papers include lecture notes on subjects such as Mussolini, Hitler, and France, suggesting the wide range of political issues he brought into the classroom during the turbulent decades before his death in 1941.