Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Wagner, Robert Ferdinand

Robert Ferdinand Wagner served as a U.S. senator from New York from 1927 to 1949. Wagner was a strong believer in the social WELFARE state and sponsored many federal laws that have shaped U.S. law and society. In the 1930s he worked closely with President FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT and helped to implement much of Roosevelt's NEW DEAL agenda.

Wagner was born on June 8, 1877, in Nastätten, Germany. With his family he immigrated to the United States in 1885, settling in a New York City tenement neighborhood. He graduated from City College in New York in 1898 and studied law at New York Law School, where he earned his degree in 1900.

Wagner was admitted to the New York bar in 1900 and practiced law on his own for a...