Abstract

Robert J. Schwartz was a American-born economist and stock-broker. He was an early advocate of socially responsible investing (SRI). He also actively campaigned for civil rights, against the Vietnam War, and against the use of nuclear weapons. He actively participated in many organizations such as Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), SANE/FREEZE (later known as Peace Action), Advocates for Children, Trust for Balanced Investment, and Social Investment Forum (SIF). He founded Economists Against the Arms Race/Economists Allied for Arms Reduction (ECAAR), later called Economists for Peace and Security (EPS), which sought to document the economic costs of military activities. Some of his disarmament activism brought him on U.S. deleations to the Soviet Union, China, and South Korea in the late 1980s. In 1966, he ran unsuccessfully on an antiwar platform for the Democratic nomination for the seat in New York's 17th Congressional district. This collection documents Robert Schwartz's work and activist from his time as a student to his work post-retirement. The collection is organized primarily by the organizations in which Robert Schwartz served. The materials represented in these groupings include meeting minutes, agendas, annual reports, correspondence and memos, notes, newsletters, and research materials. Additionally, these groupings may also include drafts of speeches, articles, reports, proposals, and other manuscripts and notes. In addition to Robert Schwartz's activism materials, the collection contains correspondence relating to his political, activist, professional, and personal lives. In addition to letters, the correspondence files include materials such as greeting cards, newspaper clippings, invitations, mailers and promotional materials, shared manuscript drafts and edits, etc. The collection also contains his college and graduate work, materials from his time working in the Treasury Department and as a Marine during World War II.