Biographical Background and Analytical Analysis

Leon Hirsch Keyserling was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on January 2, 1908, the son of a prominent Jewish family; and lived his first eight years in St. Helena Island, South Carolina, near Beaufort, South Carolina. His father, William Keyserling, was a prosperous and influential farmer, growing and marketing fruits and vegetables. After Leon Keyserling’s graduation from high school in Beaufort in 1924, he went to Columbia University in New York City and became a student of Rexford Guy Tugwell. Later, he received a Law degree from Harvard University before returning to Columbia University to work on his Doctorate in Economics, which he never finished. However, during that time, he was busy helping Rexford Tugwell in his writing; and in doing his own writings. And later, as he often said, he was busy composing and lobbying for legislation concerning the Labor acts, the Housing acts, the Employment act, etalius, which, to him, outweighed a dissertation. Later, he became Vice Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors to the President and succeeded to its Chairmanship after Edwin Nourse’s resignation, partly for Nourse’s refusal to testify on economic policy matters before Congress – a task Keyserling considered both a necessity and a duty in order to support the President’s economic policies before Congress and the Nation.