Richard H. Lansburgh
American economist
Richard Hines Lansburgh (September 26, 1893 - 1942) was an American economist, management consultant, and Professor of Industry at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, known for his work in the field of industrial management.
Biography
Lansburgh was born and raised in Washington, D.C., and studied economics at the University of Pennsylvania. There in 1915 he obtained his Bsc in economics, and in 1916 his MA, and in 1918 his PhD in Political Economy with a thesis entitled "Labor turnover."
In 1915 Lansburgh had started his life-long academic career at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, only interrupted by World War I. From 1917 to 1919 he served in the Ordnance Corps of the United States Army. He started out as First Lieutenant, and got promoted to the rank of Captain and of Major. Back at the Wharton School he was assistant professor from 1919 to 1921, and Professor of Industry until his retirement in the late 1930s.
Furthermore, Lansburgh served as director of the Pennsylvania Economy League of Southwestern Pennsylvania; as Secretary at the Labor and Industry Commonwealth of Pennsylvania since his appointment by Gifford Pinchot in 1924; as Industrial Officer; at the First National Bank of Detroit, management consultant and management author.
Work
Lansburgh is particularly known for his seminal work in industrial engineering, particularly with the publication of his 1923 book Industrial Management. The text is designed not to make any original contribution, but to create an overview of the field. In the introduction to the 3rd edition he explained the work as:
"... A conscious effort has been made to present what appears to the authors to be a sound philosophy of management, which may be summarized as a balanced relationship between the equities of the consumer, labor, owners of capital, management, and organized society or government.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q29960483. VIAF identifies the subject as 2730252. The Library of Congress control number is nr94040136. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1893, 1942, 1915 and 1916.
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This entry incorporates text from “Richard H. Lansburgh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.