Frederick Vanderbilt Field
| Frederick Vanderbilt Field | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 13, 1905 |
| Died | February 1, 2000 (aged 94) |
| Nationality | American |
| Education |
Hotchkiss School (1923) Harvard University (1927) London School of Economics |
| Parent(s) |
William Osgood Field Lila Vanderbilt Sloane |
| Relatives |
Cornelius Vanderbilt (great-great-grandfather) Samuel Osgood (ancestor) Cyrus Field (ancestor) |
Frederick Vanderbilt Field (April 13, 1905 – February 1, 2000) was an American leftist political activist and a great-great-grandson of railroad tycoon Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt, disinherited by his wealthy relatives for his radical political views. Field became a specialist on Asia and was a prime staff member and supporter of the Institute of Pacific Relations. He also supported Henry Wallace's Progressive Party and so many openly Communist organizations that he was accused of being a member of the Communist Party. He was a top target of the American government during the peak of 1950s McCarthyism. Field denied ever having been a party member but admitted in his memoirs, "I suppose I was what the Party called a 'member at large.'"
Field was born on April 13, 1905, a scion of the wealthy Vanderbilt family and a descendant of Corneilus Vanderbilt. A 1923 graduate of the private Hotchkiss School, Field went on to attend Harvard University, where he participated in undergraduate life as chief editor of the Harvard Crimson and a member of the Hasty Pudding Club. Matriculating in 1927, Field spent a year at the London School of Economics, where he was exposed to the ideas of Harold Laski, the Fabian socialist political theorist, economist, and writer. First coming into politics as a supporter of the Democratic Party after returning to the United States, he was disillusioned by the Democrats' unwillingness to take a more uncompromising position toward social reform and endorsed Norman Thomas, the Socialist presidential candidate in 1928 and became a member of the Socialist Party. Having attracted significant attention as an unlikely endorsement for Norman Thomas, Field was cut off without a penny by Frederick William Vanderbilt, his great-uncle, from whom he had been promised an estimated fortune of more than $70 million.
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