Bensel, Richard 1949–

(Richard Franklin Bensel)

PERSONAL:

Born November 13, 1949, in Pendleton, OR; son of John Gordon (a farmer) and Dorothy Lois (a secretary) Bensel; married M. Elizabeth Sanders (a professor), January 1, 1979; children: Seth Joseph. Education: University of Chicago, B.A., 1971; Cornell University, M.A., 1975, Ph.D., 1978. Politics: "Anarchist." Religion: Atheist.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Ithaca, NY. Office—Government Department, McGraw Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Texas A&M University, College Station, assistant professor, 1977-82; University of Texas at Dallas, assistant professor, 1982-84; New School for Social Research, New York, NY, associate professor, 1984-88, professor, 1988-93; Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, professor, 1993—.

MEMBER:

Agricultural History Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Historical Association, American Political Science Association, Economic History Association, Organization of American Historians.

AWARDS, HONORS:

F. Leroy Hill Fellowship, 1984; Mark Ingraham Award, 1984, for Sectionalism and American Political Development, 1880-1980; National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Fellowship, 1986.

WRITINGS:

Sectionalism and American Political Development, 1880-1980, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 1984.

Yankee Leviathan: The Origins of Central State Authority in America, 1859-1877, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1990.

The Political Economy of American Industrialization, 1877-1900, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2000.

The American Ballot Box in the Mid-nineteenth Century, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2004.

Passion and Preferences: William Jennings Bryan and the 1896 Democratic National Convention, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 2008.

Contributor to various journals, including Public Choice, Texas Business Review, Polity, Studies in American Political Development, and Social Science History; contributor to numerous books.

SIDELIGHTS:

Writer and educator Richard Bensel was born November 13, 1949, in Pendleton, Oregon. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Chicago, then went on to complete his graduate work at Cornell University, earning both his master's degree and his doctorate. Bensel has served on the faculty at several major universities, including Texas A&M, the University of Texas at Dallas, the New School for Social Research—now New School University—and at Cornell. His primary areas of research and academic interest are government, American politics, and the political economy. He contributes to a number of journals, including Public Choice, Texas Business Review, Polity, Studies in American Political Development, and Social Science History, and has written several books.

In The Political Economy of American Industrialization, 1877-1900, Bensel goes against the common assumption that industrialization fails to take place during periods of democratic leadership. It has been previously assumed that democratic principles include the promotion of the distribution of wealth, so the concentration of finances required for true industrialization becomes impossible. Bensel, however, takes a close look at the end of the nineteenth century, a period of strong industrialization in the United States, and explains how this period contradicts this supposition. He addresses the government of the time and shows how the concentration of the politicians on the nation's economic issues helped to foster a push toward greater progress in industry. Terry L. Seip, in a review for the Journal of Southern History, remarked that "Bensel is well qualified to bridge the gap between economic and political historians of the period, and both groups will now have to contend with his thoroughgoing argument, which also has implications for studies of comparative development." Business History contributor Raymond L. Cohn declared: "This book fully delivers on the expansive promise of its title."

The American Ballot Box in the Mid-nineteenth Century is an in-depth look at the process of voting as it occurred in the United States during the middle of the nineteenth century. Bensel addresses the mechanics of voting, including the design and placement of polling places and the physical act of voting. He also looks at political and social influences on the voting process, such as the ways in which voters might have been influenced in their political decisions and what political loyalties resulted from how the voting process progressed. Bensel based much of his research on various hearings that were held for disputes regarding the way a number of congressional elections were handled. Due to the timing, very little is known of several Southern states and their voting practices, as they were not participants in these hearings. Howard W. Allen, writing for Political Science Quarterly, observed that "this study is fascinating and readable, but it is not, as many generalizations in the book and the title suggest, a convincing general assessment of voting behavior in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century." Thomas E. Jeffrey, in a review for the Journal of Southern History, declared Bensel's effort an "important and provocative book."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Business History, January 1, 2002, Raymond L. Cohn, review of The Political Economy of American Industrialization, 1877-1900, p. 124.

Journal of Southern History, February 1, 2003, Terry L. Seip, review of The Political Economy of American Industrialization, 1877-1900, p. 203; February 1, 2006, Thomas E. Jeffrey, review of The American Ballot Box in the Mid-nineteenth Century, p. 182.

Political Science Quarterly, June 22, 2005, Howard W. Allen, review of The American Ballot Box in the Mid-nineteenth Century, p. 325.