Berle, Adolf Augustus

(1895-1971)

   Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Adolph Berle was a child prodigy who graduated with a B.A. and M.A. in history, a law degree, and passage to the bar all by the age of 21. Although a pacifist, he served in the Signal Corps during World War I and then attended the Paris Peace Conference as a delegate in 1918 but resigned over the terms of the Versailles peace treaty. He became professor of corporate law at Columbia Law School in 1927 and held the post until he retired in 1963. Berle wrote several major books on law, including, with Gardiner C. Means, The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1932), The 20th Century Capitalist Revolution (1954), and Power without Property (1959). In the 1930s Berle became a member of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “Brain Trust” and also an adviser to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia of New York. During World War II, Berle was appointed assistant secretary of state for Latin affairs, and from 1945 to 1946 he was ambassador to Brazil. In 1961, Berle was one of the advisers who helped shape President John F. Kennedy’s Alliance for Progress Policy for Latin America. His book, Latin America: Diplomacy and Reality, was published in 1962.