The term "brains trust" (originally plural, the s was later dropped) was first coined in 1901 and used in a sarcastic sense in reference to the first American general staff of the U.S. President. In 1932, New York Times writer James Kieran revived the term when he applied it to the close group of experts that surrounded United States presidential candidate Franklin Roosevelt.1 The term has since been applied in general sense to any close group of advisors.2
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Roosevelt brain trust
Having an academic team was first suggested to Roosevelt in March 1932 by Roosevelt's legal counsel Samuel Rosenman. This concept was, perhaps, based on The Inquiry, a group of academic advisors President Woodrow Wilson formed in 1917 to prepare for the peace negotiations following World War I.
The core of the first Roosevelt brain trust consisted of a group of Columbia law professors (Moley, Tugwell, and Burle). These men played a key role in shaping the policies of the First New Deal (1933). Although they never met together as a group, they each had Roosevelt's ear. Many newspaper editorials and editorial cartoons ridiculed them as impractical idealists.
The core of the second Roosevelt brain trust sprang from men associated with the Harvard law school (Cohen, Corcoran, and Frankfurter). These men played a key role in shaping the policies of the Second New Deal (1935-1936).
Members
- Adolf Berle - original Brain Trust
- Benjamin V. Cohen - 2nd New Deal
- Thomas Gardiner Corcoran - 2nd New Deal
- Felix Frankfurter - 2nd New Deal
- Louis Howe
- Raymond Moley - original Brain Trust (Moley broke with Roosevelt and became a sharp critic of the New Deal from the right)
- Basil O'Connor
- George Peek
- Charles William Taussig
- Rexford Tugwell - original Brain Trust
- Hugh S. Johnson
- F. Palmer Weber
- James Warburg - original Brain Trustcitation needed
See also
References
Primary
- Moley, Raymond. (1939). After seven years
- Tugwell, Rexford. (1968). The Brains Trust
- Editorial cartoons
Secondary
- Rosen, Elliot. (1977). Hoover, Roosevelt, and the Brains Trust.
- McElvaine, Robert. (1984). The Great Depression: America 1929-1941
Notes
- ^ James Kieran "The 'Cabinet' Mr. Roosevelt Already Has", New York Times, November 20, 1932, p. XX2. Roosevelt himself had recently tossed out the term when speaking to newsmen. Boller, Presidential Campaigns: From George Washington to George W. Bush (Oxford University Press 2004) pg. 237-8 (available at: http://books.google.com/books?id=MpCTZQywq0YC&printsec=frontcover )
- ^ Hendrickson, Robert “Word and Phrase Origins” (1997)
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