William Graham Sumner was an American academic and "held the first professorship in sociology" at Yale College. For many years he had a reputation as one of the most influential teachers there. He was a polymath with numerous books and essays on American history, economic history, political theory, sociology, and anthropology. He is credited with introducing the term "ethnocentrism," a term intended to identify imperialists' chief means of justification, in his book Folkways . Sumner is often seen as a proto-libertarian. He was also the first to teach a course entitled "Sociology". Sumner... was a critic of natural rights, famously arguing Born in Paterson, New Jersey, Sumner graduated from Yale College in 1863, where he had been a member of Skull and Bones. During the late 1860s Sumner was an Episcopalian minister. In 1872, Sumner accepted the chair of Political Economy at Yale University. Sumner was a staunch advocate of laissez-faire economics, as well as "a forthright proponent of free trade and the gold standard and a foe of socialism.
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