Charles A. Beard, (born Nov. 27, 1874, near Knightstown, Ind., U.S.—died Sept. 1, 1948, New Haven, Conn.), U.S. historian. Beard taught at Columbia University (1904–17) and cofounded New York’s New School for Social Research (1919). He is best known for iconoclastic studies of the development of U.S. political institutions, emphasizing the dynamics of socioeconomic conflict and change and analyzing motivational factors in the founding of institutions. His works include An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States (1913), claiming that the Constitution was formulated to serve the economic interests of the founders; The Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy (1915); and, with his wife, Mary R. Beard (1876–1958), The Rise of American Civilization (1927).
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