Patten
SIMON NELSON, an American author and professor. Born at Sandwich, Ill., in 1852, and educated at Northwestern University, Illinois, and Halle, Germany. In 1888 he became professor of Political Economy at the University of Pennsylvania, a position which he held until his retirement in 1917. His most important work is his "Development of English Thought" in which he discusses the economic phases underlying the progress of ideas. The same thesis-economic explanation of social phenomena-underlies all his work. Some of his other important works are "Theory of Social Forces" (1896); "Heredity and Social Progress" (1903); "Social Basis of Religion" (1911); "Culture and War" (1916).