James Wilford Garner (November 22, 1871, Pike County, Mississippi – December 9, 1938, Urbana, Illinois) was an American political scientist who was professor of political science at the University of Illinois.

Early life

James Wilford Garner was born in Pike County, Mississippi in 1871 to W. O. and Martha A. Garner. He graduated from the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College in 1892. He taught in Mississippi high schools from 1892 to 1896. He studied history and political science at the University of Chicago (Ph.M., 1900), after which he taught history at Bradley Polytechnic Institute.

Academic career

He studied at Columbia University (Ph.D., 1902), where he was a member of the Dunning School. His dissertation, Reconstruction in Mississippi, though critical of Reconstruction, was regarded by W. E. B. Du Bois as the fairest of the works of the Dunning School. He was professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania in 1902–1903. He became professor of political science at the University of Illinois in 1904. He was editor in chief of the American Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1910–1911). He was head of the American Political Science Association in 1924. He was Hyde lecturer in the French universities (1921) and Tagore lecturer in the University of Calcutta (1922). He lectured for a semester at the Geneva Institute of Higher International Studies. In 1928, he lectured at New York University. In 1929, he lectured at French and English universities as a visiting professor for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was awarded Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour.

Personal life

He married Terese Leggett in 1895. They had no children.

Works