Bertram Myron Gross (1912 – March 12, 1997) was an Americansocial scientist, federal bureaucrat and Professor ofPolitical Science atHunter College (CUNY). He is known from his bookFriendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America from 1980, and as primary author of theHumphrey–Hawkins Full Employment Act.

Bertram Myron Gross was born in 1912 inPhiladelphia. He received hisB.A. inEnglish andphilosophy and hisM.A. in English from theUniversity of Pennsylvania.^[1]

In the late 1930s, he started as a federal bureaucrat in Washington. From 1941 to 1945 he was a staff member of a number ofSenate committees. In 1940 he was appointed Chief, Research and Hearing for theSpecial Committee to Study Problems of American Small Business. With funding from theCarnegie Foundation of New York, he took responsibility for producingThe Fate of Small Business in Nazi Germany, written byA. R. L. Gurland,Otto Kirchheimer andFranz Neumann.^[2]: i He also subsequently wrote the Roosevelt-Truman full employment bills of 1944 and 1945, which led to theEmployment Act of 1946.^[1] From 1946 to 1952 he was executive secretary of the President'sCouncil of Economic Advisers and was among those who advocated makingGross National Product a key measurement of the economy, which he later regretted. "I was one of the key figures pressing for it then. Who knew that pushing for growth would distort all human values and priorities?," he said.^[3]

In 1953, he moved with his family toIsrael, where he served as an economic advisor in the Prime Minister's Office and as a visiting professor at theHebrew University, where he established their program in Public Administration.^[1] He returned to the United States in the 1960s and joined the faculty ofSyracuse University in theMaxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. In 1961–62, he was a Fellow at theCenter for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto; and, in 1962–63, he was the Leatherbee Lecturer at the Harvard Business School.^{[citation needed]}

In 1970, Bertram Gross was president of theSociety for General Systems Research.^[4] From 1970 to 1982 he was Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Urban Affairs at Hunter College and theCUNY Graduate Center.

He was married to Nora Faine Gross and was survived by his second wife, Kusum Singh. He was the father of four sons, including Nobel Prize winnerDavid J. Gross.^{[citation needed]}

Gross wrote several books and articles. A selection:^[5]

• 1953, "The Legislative Struggle: A Study in Social Combat", New York: McGraw Hill.
• 1954,The hard money crusade, with Wilfred Lumer, Washington: Public Affairs Institute.
• 1963,An annotated bibliography on national economic planning, Syracuse, N.Y.: Maxwell Graduate School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.
• 1964,The managing of organizations: The administrative struggle New York: Free Press of Glencoe.
• 1966,The state of the nation : social systems accounting, New York : Tavistock Publications, 1966, 166 p.
• 1967, (eds.)Social goals and indicators for American society, Philadelphia: American Academy of Political and Social Science.
• 1967,Action under planning: The guidance of economic development, New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
• 1968,Organizations and their managing, New York: Free Press.
• 1968, A great society?, New York: Basic Books.
• 1970,Political intelligence for America's future, with Michael Springer, Philadelphia: None.
• 1978,The Legislative Struggle: A Study in Social Combat,Reprint of 1953 book. Conn.: Greenwood Press.
• 1980,Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America, New York: M. Evans.
• 1993,Legislative strategy: Shaping public policy, with Edward V. Schneier, New York: St. Martin's Press.
• 1993,Congress today, with Edward V. Schneier, New York: St. Martin's Press.
• 1993,Human rights for the 2lst century, foundations for responsible hope: A U.S. post Soviet dialogue Armonk,, with Peter H. Juviler, V.A. Kartashkin & E.A. Lukasheva (eds.), New York: M.E. Sharpe.

• Friendly Fascism: The New Face of Power in America atGoogle Books

• 1912 births
• 1997 deaths
• American economics writers
• American political writers
• American anti-globalization writers
• Hunter College faculty
• Academic staff of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• Syracuse University faculty
• American systems scientists
• Jewish scientists
• Jewish American social scientists
• 20th-century American non-fiction writers
• 20th-century American male writers
• American male non-fiction writers
• Harvard Business School people
• 20th-century American Jews
• Presidents of the International Society for the Systems Sciences
• Writers from Philadelphia

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from June 2025
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from June 2025