A Remembrance of Tertius Chandler
Fred Foldvary
[Reprinted from The Progress Report, 5 June
2000]
In Memory of Tertius Chandler by Fred E. Foldvary, Senior Editor
Tertius Chandler, a historian and author, died at age 85 in Berkeley
on May 17, 2000, after being struck by a car on April 21. Chandler's
ideas about history were original and visionary, and he was an avid
advocate of the single tax on land rent. Also an athlete, he continued
running in his elderly age, and he kept up his scholarship and writing
until the end.
Tertius was a dear friend of mine. Though well read and educated,
with an undergraduate degree from Harvard, he did not get a Ph.D.
until late in life, and had difficulty getting his books published. He
did not have an academic position in a university, although he was in
touch with historians, economists, and philosophers, including Will
Durant. He lectured on history, economics, and religion, especially
about Moses. I helped him to publish some books on land-value taxation
and history. His unpublished autobiography is on file at the Berkeley
Historical Society.
Chandler's most successful book in terms of recognition by scholars
is Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth (1987). The book includes
estimates of the population of cities since ancient times. His most
important book, in my judgment, was The Tax We Need published by the
Gutenberg Press in 1980. In less than 100 pages, he laid out the basic
economics of land-value taxation, and why unlike other taxes, this is
one tax we really need. The book had a foreword by Alfred Kahn,
advisor to president Carter. Topics in the book include poverty,
taxing land values, the ill effects of taxing improvements, curing
depressions, the effect on cities, Henry George, and examples of
applications world-wide.
His masterpiece, however, was Chandler's Half Encyclopedia, the
second edition published by the Gutenberg Press in 1983. Tertius told
me he called it a "half" encyclopedia because he didn't know
everything, and some topics are not heavily covered. But it is strong
in history, social science, and especially biographies. One of
Chandler's passions was to study and make lists of great men and
women. It is amazing that one man could write a whole encyclopedia of
1670 pages, plus an index, all written with no computer, but just a
typewriter.
Some of Tertius Chandler's original ideas include:
* That Zeus was a king in Moses' time.
* That Tubal of ancient Spain may have built Stonehenge.
* That Moses was Ikhnaton's vizier Ramose.
* That Chinese writing was derived from that of Moses.
* That Hindu reincarnation concepts came from Egypt.
* That Noah was the same person as the ancient Greek Aeneas.
Another of Chandler's books is Godly Kinds and Early Ethics, where he
presented his ideas on Moses and his belief that Zeus and other
figures in Greek mythology were actual people. Chandler said that
Moses, influenced by the Egyptian pharaoh Ikhnaton, originated
democracy, advocated the Golden Rule, and invented the alphabet.
In Remote Kingdoms, Tertius Chandler wrote about the little known
kingdoms of Africa, the Americas, Asia, and the Pacific. It includes
chapters on Sheba, the Yorubas, the Vikings, kingdoms in Mexico, the
Incas, the Sioux, and the Choctaws.
His admiration of Moses led him to write Moses & the Golden Age,
showing how Moses was much more than the leader of the Israelite
Exodus. He describes the pharaoh Ikhnaton, who rejected the belief in
many Gods and worshipped instead Aton, which was the name of the sun,
but was not the sun itself but only a symbol for God. Chandler
describes the Pax Atonica, an era of peace.
Always cheerful and optimistic, my friend Tertius believed deeply in
progress, and wrote a book titled Progress: Social Progress from
Mercury to Kennedy, published in 1976. Chandler there identified the
ancient god Mercury as Menkur=E9, pharaoh of Egypt around 2500 BC, who
recognized and implemented human rights. Gudea, ruler in Babylonia and
a monotheist, also proclaimed the Golden Rule of treating others like
you wanted to be treated.
Tertius Chandler was original like few others, and used history to
promote peace and social progress. He wrote one of the clearest
presentations on geoism and the use of rent for public finance. But
despite his publications and large correspondence with well-known
people, Chandler remained an obscure historian and social reformer,
largely unknown to the world. We have much to learn from him, and let
us hope that future history will add Tertius Chandler's name to his
own list of great men of progress.
Copyright 2000 by Fred E. Foldvary. All rights reserved. No part of
this material may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, which includes but is not limited to
facsimile transmission, photocopying, recording, rekeying, or using
any information storage or retrieval system, without giving full
credit to Fred Foldvary and The Progress Report.
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