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Title: Robert G. Wesson papers
Date (inclusive): 1936-1991
Collection Number: 81073
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: In English and Spanish
Physical Description:
18 manuscript boxes
(7.0 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Correspondence, writings, memoranda, and clippings relating to the Soviet political system, political and economic conditions
in Latin America and other parts of the world, and the theory of evolution.
Creator:
Wesson, Robert G.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives
The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual
or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.
For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1981.
[Identification of item], Robert G. Wesson papers, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.
Robert G. Wesson was an American political scientist who served as a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution for
over a decade. Wesson was interested in natural science and philosophy as well as political science, and as a result, his
works, numbering over 30 published books in his career, span topics ranging from debt in Latin America to modern thought on
the theory of evolution. Born in Washington D.C. in 1920, Wesson served in the Navy between 1944 and 1946. Wesson served
with the Foreign Service in Brazil and Columbia and spent a number of years living in South America. He received his bachelor's
degree at the University of Arizona, his master's at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and his Ph.D.
in political science at Columbia University. He taught for thirteen years at the University of California at Santa Barbara
before joining the Hoover Institution in 1977. He had eight children and died of cancer in 1991 at 71 years of age.
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/03/obituaries/robert-g-wesson-71-expert-on-soviet-union.html
http://news.stanford.edu/pr/91/910702Arc1265.html
Scope and Content of Collection
The papers are comprised of correspondence, writings, memoranda, and clippings relating to the Soviet political system, political
and economic conditions in Latin America and other parts of the world, and the theory of evolution.
The papers primarily document Wesson's work as a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution from 1978 to his death in
1991. A prolific writer, his many articles and essays on politics and economy in Latin America, communism, international
relations, and democracy are included in the collection.
Wesson worked on a number of projects and events, including the Hoover Institution publication series "Politics in Latin America"
and a conference on Latin American debt. Articles and correspondence related to these and other projects are included in
the Correspondence and Writings by Others series.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Soviet Union -- Politics and government
World politics -- 1945-1989
Latin America -- Politics and government -- 20th century
Latin America -- Economic conditions -- 1945-
Evolution