Ratner, Sidney

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RATNER, SIDNEY

RATNER, SIDNEY (1908–1996), U.S. economic historian. Born in New York City, Ratner was appointed professor of economic history at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1958. He was active in U.S. civil liberties and civil rights movements. Ratner's major scholarly work concerned the interaction between government and the economy, with particular focus upon American taxation problems.

Among other books, he was the author of Taxation, Its History as a Social Force in Democracy (1942), Taxation and Democracy in America (1967), and The Evolution of the American Economy (with J. Soltow and R. Sylla, 1979).