Christopher Jencks

Born in Baltimore on October 22, 1936, he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire in 1954 and was president of the school's newspaper, the Exonian, as a senior.{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/12/books/christopher-jencks-dead.html|title = Christopher Jencks, a Shaper of Views on Economic Inequality, Dies at 88|last = Risen|first = Clay|date = February 12, 2025|accessdate = February 12, 2025|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}}{{Cite web| title = The Exeter Man: Rebel Without a Cause {{!}} News | publisher = The Harvard Crimson| access-date = 2023-12-04| date = 1957-11-09| url = https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1957/11/9/the-exeter-man-rebel-without-a/}} After Exeter, he received an A.B. in English from Harvard in 1958, followed by a M.Ed. in Harvard Graduate School of Education. During the year 1960–1961 he studied sociology at the London School of Economics.{{Cite web| title = 'To Get a Good Job, Get'...Uh {{!}} News | publisher = The Harvard Crimson| access-date = 2023-12-04| date = 1972-09-18| url = https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1972/9/18/to-get-a-good-job-getuh/}}

Jencks was Malcolm Wiener Professor of Social Policy in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Emeritus.{{Cite web| title = Christopher Jencks| work = The New York Review of Books| access-date = 2023-12-04| url = https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/christopher-jencks/}} He held positions at Northwestern University, the University of Chicago and the University of California at Santa Barbara.{{Cite web |date=2016-08-09 |title=Christopher Jencks |url=https://www.aapss.org/fellow/christopher-jencks/ |access-date=2023-02-23 |website=AAPSS |language=en-US}}

His interests were in the study of education, social stratification, social mobility, family structure,{{Cite news| issn = 0190-8286| last = Badger| first = Emily| title = The unbelievable rise of single motherhood in America over the last 50 years| newspaper = Washington Post| access-date = 2023-12-04| date = 2021-11-25| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/12/18/the-unbelievable-rise-of-single-motherhood-in-america-over-the-last-50-years/}} poverty and the poor.{{Cite news| issn = 0190-8286| last = Ehrenfreund| first = Max| title = Bernie Sanders is right: Bill Clinton's welfare law doubled extreme poverty| newspaper = Washington Post| access-date = 2023-12-04| date = 2021-11-24| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/02/27/bernie-sanders-is-right-bill-clintons-welfare-law-doubled-extreme-poverty/}} Prior to his university career, he was an editor at The New Republic from 1961 to 1967 and a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC from 1963 to 1967. He served as an editor of The American Prospect.{{Cite web| title = Christopher Jencks| access-date = 2023-12-04| url = https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/christopher-jencks}} He published 28 essays in The New York Review of Books (https://www.nybooks.com/contributors/christopher-jencks/)and many in The New Republic.{{Cite news| issn = 0362-4331| last =+ Wrong| first = Dennis H.| title = Why the Poor Get Poorer| work = The New York Times| access-date = 2023-12-04| date = 1992-04-19| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/19/books/why-the-poor-get-poorer.html}}

Jencks was part of the dissertation committee at Harvard's Kennedy School that in 2009 awarded Jason Richwine – a former member of The Heritage Foundation – a PhD for his thesis, "IQ and Immigration Policy".{{Cite web| title = The Inside Story Of The Harvard Dissertation That Became Too Racist For Heritage| access-date = 2023-12-04| date = 2013-05-22| url = https://archive.thinkprogress.org/the-inside-story-of-the-harvard-dissertation-that-became-too-racist-for-heritage-3a14238f662e/}} Criticized for the way it linked race to IQ levels, the thesis lost Richwine his job at the Foundation.{{Cite web| title = An Open Letter to the Kennedy School Faculty {{!}} Opinion | publisher = The Harvard Crimson| access-date = 2023-12-04| date = 2013-05-30| url = https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2013/5/30/dissertation-open-letter/}}{{Cite web| title = Heritage Was Wrong| work = National Review| access-date = 2023-12-04| date = 2013-05-13| url = https://www.nationalreview.com/2013/05/heritage-was-wrong-robert-verbruggen/}} According to an article in The Nation by journalist and historian Jon Wiener, Jencks was "for decades a leading figure among liberals who did serious research on inequality ..." and knew exactly what was "wrong with the studies purporting to link 'race' with 'IQ'." When Wiener asked if Jencks would comment on issues involving the PhD, he replied, "Nope. But thanks for asking."{{Cite news|last=Wiener|first=Jon|date=May 11, 2013|title=Why Did Harvard Give a PhD for a Discredited Approach to Race and IQ?|work=The Nation|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/why-did-harvard-give-phd-discredited-approach-race-and-iq/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116063106/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/why-did-harvard-give-phd-discredited-approach-race-and-iq/ |access-date=4 June 2022|archive-date=November 16, 2020 }}

After two prior marriages ended in divorce, Jencks married Jane Mansbridge in 1976; they had a son. Jencks died from Alzheimer's disease at his home in Lexington, Massachusetts, on February 8, 2025, at the age of 88.

• The Academic Revolution (with David Riesman, 1968, reissued 2001)
• Inequality: A Reassessment of the Effects of Family and Schooling in America (with seven co-authors, 1972)
• Who Gets Ahead? (with eleven co-authors, 1979)
• The Urban Underclass (with Paul Peterson, 1991)
• Rethinking Social Policy (1992)
• The Homeless (1994)
• The Black-White Test Score Gap (with Meredith Phillips, 1998)

Jencks received awards for his work on different topics within sociology. For his work with David Riesman documenting "the rise to power of professional scholars and scientists",{{Cite web| title = The Academic Revolution| work = Routledge & CRC Press| access-date = 2023-12-05| url = https://www.routledge.com/The-Academic-Revolution/Jencks/p/book/9780765801159}} he received the 1968 Borden Prize for Best Book on Higher Education.{{Cite web| title = Christopher Jencks - Scholars {{!}} Institute for Advanced Study| access-date = 2023-12-04| date = 2019-12-09| url = https://www.ias.edu/scholars/christopher-jencks}} For his book on inequality he was the co-recipient of the 1974 Best Book in Sociology award from the American Sociological Association. For his book and articles on homelessness, he received the 1994 Best Book in Sociology and Anthropology from Association of American Publishers, and the 1995 Harry Chapin Media Award.{{Cite web| title = Inequality Reexamined: A conference in honor of Christopher "Sandy" Jencks| access-date = 2023-12-04| date = 2013-10-11| url = https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/inequality/files/sandyfestprogrambooklet.pdf}}

He also received the 1992 Willard Waller Award for lifetime achievement.{{Cite web| title = Sociology of Education Award Recipient History {{!}} American Sociological Association| access-date = 2023-12-05| url = https://www.asanet.org/communities-and-sections/sections/current-sections/sociology-of-education-award-recipient-history/}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20100818165915/http://ksgfaculty.harvard.edu/faculty/cv/ChristopherJencks.pdf Curriculum vitae of Jencks]
• [https://www.aapss.org/fellow/christopher-jencks/ Citation for Jencks] on website of American Academy of Political and Social Science
• [http://www.hks.harvard.edu/about/faculty-staff-directory/christopher-jencks Official homepage] at Harvard University
• [http://www.nasonline.org/site/Dir/1075881090?pg=vprof&mbr=1003505&returl=http%3A%2%2Fwww.nasonline.org%2Fsite%2FDir%2F1075881090%3Fpg%3Dsrch%26view%3Dbasic&retmk=search_again_link Citation for Jencks] on website of the National Academy of Sciences
• [https://inequality.stanford.edu/about/people/christopher-jencks Home page], Stanford Center for Poverty and Inequality
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110103164027/http://www.amacad.org/pdfs/alphaList09.pdf Membership list], National Academy of Arts and Sciences
• {{citation|first1=Neil|last1= Postman|first2=Charles|last2= Weingartner|title=The School Book|publisher= Delacorte/Seymour Lawrence|year= 1973}}

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Category:1936 births

Category:2025 deaths

Category:20th-century American social scientists

Category:21st-century American social scientists

Category:Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in Massachusetts

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni

Category:Harvard University faculty

Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society

Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences

Category:Northwestern University faculty

Category:Scientists from Baltimore

Category:The New Republic people

Category:University of Chicago faculty