Stephen Usher on Rudolf Steiner: How He Did It

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was arguably the greatest creative genius of the 20^th Century. He created the Waldorf School movement, which is one of the largest private school movements in the world with over 1000 schools worldwide; he created Biodynamic Agriculture, which was the first alternative agricultural movement with 1000s of acres under cultivation and Demeter certified foods particularly in Europe; he created anthroposophically extended western medicine with hospitals, pharmaceuticals, and 1000s of MD’s practicing around the world; he created a unique school of architecture best known for the Goetheanum, a concrete building in Switzerland; he created the movement art of Eurythmy; and he attempted to restructure Central Europe after World War I with his Threefold Social Order. Hitler attacked Steiner in print in 1921 and the early Nazis tried to kill him in 1922 when he lectured in Munich.

His collected works number over 350 volumes. A well known intellectual of his day, he was given the task at age 22 of editing the scientific writings of Goethe for the first complete edition of Goethe’s works. Steiner’s development of a Science of the Spirit to complement Natural Science based on precisely “schooled clairvoyance” led to a great deal of controversy during his life and continues to do so today.

At the request of Stephen Usher in 1983, Nobel laureate Saul Bellow wrote a foreword to Steiner’s Boundaries of Natural Science, which was published by the Anthroposophic Press. Joseph Beuys’ untimely death in 1986 prevented him from writing an agreed upon foreword to a volume of Steiner’s social thought.

Stephen E. Usher received an MA in mathematics and a PhD in economics from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. He served on the research staff of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (1978-1980) where he attended meetings with Paul Volcker. He took over the management of the Anthroposophic Press (publisher of Steiner in the US) in 1980 and continued in that position until 1988 when he joined an international economic consulting firm. In 1999 Mr. Usher became an independent economic consultant. Today he spends his time writing and lecturing about Rudolf Steiner.

Homepage of Stephen E. Usher, Ph.D.
“The Threefold Social Organism: An Introduction,” by Stephen E. Usher.
Archive of free books and lectures by Rudolf Steiner.
2005 New World Symphony Eurythmy tour of US with videos of the performances.