author
Wendell Berge
1903–1955
A New Deal lawyer who rose to lead the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, he wrote about the law with the clarity of someone who had worked at its center. His career linked public service, corporate law, and the big economic debates of mid-20th-century America.
1 Audiobook
Cartels : challenge to a free world
by Wendell Berge
About the author
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1903, Wendell Berge studied at the University of Nebraska and then at the University of Michigan, where he earned his law degree and continued advanced legal study. After a short period in private practice in New York, he joined the U.S. Department of Justice in 1930.
Berge became an important figure in federal law enforcement during the Roosevelt and Truman years. He served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division from 1943 to 1947, helping shape the government's approach to competition and monopoly during and just after World War II.
He was also a writer whose work grew out of that experience, explaining legal and economic issues for a broader audience. Berge died in Washington, D.C., in 1955, leaving behind a career remembered for both public service and legal thought.