Prynce Hopkins (March 5, 1885 - August 1970), who was born Prince Charles Hopkins, was an American Socialist, pacifist and author of numerous psychology books and periodicals. He was jailed and fined for his strident anti-war views, pro-union activities, and investigated for his associations with such social reformers as Upton Sinclair and Emma Goldman.
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Prynce Hopkins, who also spelled his name Prince or Pryns, was a wealthy Californian described by the New York Times as the "Socialist Millionaire." One of his publishers described Hopkins as an “eccentric, queer English duck," an indication of his affectation in speech and manner that he carried throughout his life. He had inherited a sewing machine manufacturing empire and used his money to fund leftist causes and self-publish books on psychoanalysis, social reform and religion.[1]
He graduated from Stanford University with a Master’s degree and the University of Wisconsin with a doctorate in psychology. Hopkins also lectured at the University of Wisconsin. In Europe, he studied pathology at the University Hospital in Nancy, France, and La Salpetiere Hospital in Paris.[1]
Hopkins was known for his unorthodox approach to social reform. He advocated theories that gangsters can be reformed by hypnotism.[2] His interests in mixing psychology, social reform and theology resulted in several books, including Father or Sons? (1927), The Psychology of Social Movements; a Psycho-Analytic View of Society (1938) and From Gods to Dictators: Psychology of Religions and their Totalitarian Substitutes (1944).[3]
Hopkins lived in Santa Barbara, Calif., and in 1912 opened a progressive boys' boarding school, Boyland, on a 32-acre (130,000 m2) estate. The school employed a number of social programs for his students who were considered incorrigible.[4] The school, however, was short-lived. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Hopkins became a vocal anti-war protester. He also worked with anarchists Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman for the anti-war organization League for Amnesty of Political Prisoners. When Goldman was imprisoned for her anti-war activities, Hopkins became chairman of the League.[5]
During the same period, he was indicted by a federal Grand Jury on charges of violating the Espionage Act and arrested. His arrest was based less on spying and more for impeding Army recruiting. The U.S. Department of Justice raided Boyland and seized anti-war literature and other material as evidence. On August 30, 1918, he pleaded guilty and was fined $27,000.
Hopkins closed Boyland and founded a similar institution in France. On January 12, 1921, while still in exile in Europe, Hopkins married Eileen Thomas of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, at St. Peter’s Church in London before embarking on a six-month honeymoon around the world.[2]
By 1922, he returned to the United States to edit Labor Age magazine, which was associated with the Socialist League for Industrial Democracy. He also worked with Upton Sinclair and the Industrial Workers of the World labor organization. At the same time he renewed his friendship with fellow Socialist Rob Wagner, later editor and publisher of Script, a literary film magazine. Wagner had sent his two sons to Boyland. Wagner also introduced Hopkins to other leftists such as writers William B. DeMille and Max Eastman.
Attending a rally for 600 striking dockworkers in San Pedro, California, in 1923, Hopkins was arrested with Sinclair. who was addressing the strikers in a speech. Sinclair’s crime was attempting to recite the First Amendment of the Constitution.[6]
At the outbreak of World War II, Hopkins, who by then was 57 years old, returned to his anti-war activities and founded Freedom magazine in Pasadena, Calif. Freedom, published quarterly, was a vocal political publication that offered an assortment of medical, social, psychological and pacifist reports to its small, but supportive, circle of readers.
Freedom's contributors included an eclectic group of writers. Dr. Daniel H. Kress, one of the first physicians to recognize the health dangers of tobacco. Harold F. Bing, who was imprisoned during World War I as a conscientious objector and was active in War Resisters' International, wrote regularly for the magazine. Among other contributors were Dr. Abraham H. Maslow, considered the father of Humanism in psychology; Ada Farris, a writer for Script and the Saturday Evening Post; and Gilean Douglas, who wrote for New Mexico Quarterly. Los Angeles artist Leo Politi contributed regular artwork.
Published Works by Prynce Hopkins listed in the Library of Congress:
Father or Sons? (K.Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1927)
The Psychology of Social Movements; a Psycho-Analytic View of Society (London, G. Allen & Unwin, 1938)
Aids to Successful Study (London, G. Allen & Unwin, 1941)
From Gods to Dictators: Psychology of Religions and their Totalitarian Substitutes (Girard, Kan., Haldeman-Julius Publications, 1944)
A Westerner Looks East (Los Angeles, W. F. Lewis, 1951)
Both Hands Before The Fire (Penobscot, Me., Traversity Press, 1962)
The Social Psychology of Religious Experience (New York, Paine-Whitman, 1962)
World Invisible (Penobscot, Me., Traversity Press, 1963)
Orientation, Socialization and Individuation (Asia Publishing House, 1963)
/ The Archives of the History of American Psychology
/ Prynce Hopkins' unionist activities
/ Hopkins' anti-war activities