Bernadotte Everly Schmitt

Bernadotte Everly Schmitt (May 19, 1886 – March 23, 1969) was an American historian who was professor of Modern European History at the University of Chicago from 1924 to 1946.^[3] He is best known for his study of the causes of World War I, in which he emphasized Germany's perceived responsibility and rejected revisionist arguments.^[4]

Bernadotte Everly Schmitt
1920 passport application photo
Born	(1886-05-19)May 19, 1886 Strasburg, Virginia, US
Died	March 23, 1969(1969-03-23) (aged 82) Alexandria, Virginia, US
Education	University of Tennessee (B.A.) Merton College, Oxford (B.A. and M.A.)[1] University of Wisconsin–Madison (Ph.D)[2]
Spouse	Damaris Kathryn Ames[1][2]
Awards	Pulitzer Prize for History George Louis Beer Prize

Biography

Schmitt received his Master of Arts from the University of Oxford and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.^[1] He was permanently hostile to Germany after his first visit there in 1906.^[5] In 1916 he gained notice with England and Germany, 1740–1914. His book The Coming of the War, 1914 (published in 1930^[6]) won him the 1930 George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical Association^[7] and the 1931 Pulitzer Prize for History.^[1]

This work, for which he remains best known, took issue with the equally prominent study of the origins of the First World War published two years earlier by Sidney Fay (for which its author had also won a Beer Prize). In contrast to Fay's argument that Serbia and Russia were culpable, Schmitt insisted that Germany had indeed been largely responsible for the catastrophe. The debate between the "orthodox" school represented by Schmitt, Luigi Albertini and Pierre Renouvin, and the "revisionist" school of Fay, Harry Elmer Barnes and others that shifted blame from the Central Powers to the Allies, dominated scholarship on the "war-guilt" question until the publication of Fritz Fischer's Griff nach der Weltmacht (Germany's Aims in the First World War) (1961), which reopened the debate with a fresh approach by blaming Germany's prewar ambitions.^[8]

Schmitt was the first editor of the Journal of Modern History, serving from 1929 to 1946.^[1] In 1937 Schmitt published The Annexation of Bosnia, 1908–1909.^[1][9] In November 1941, he called for Germany's population to be reduced from 80 to 50 million.^[10][5]

Schmitt was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1938 and the American Philosophical Society in 1942.^[11][12] In 1960, he was President of the American Historical Association.^[1] He died in 1969.^[13]

Legacy

The American Historical Association offers the Bernadotte E. Schmitt Grants to support research in the history of Europe, Africa, and Asia.

References

1. Levens, R.G.C., ed. (1964). Merton College Register 1900–1964. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. p. 50.
2. Finding Aid for Bernadotte E. Schmitt Papers Archived 2018-09-29 at the Wayback Machine, University of Tennessee Special Collections. Retrieved: 15 May 2013.
3. "Guide to the Bernadotte E. Schmitt Papers 1913–1961". www.lib.uchicago.edu. Archived from the original on 2019-10-26. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
4. Keir A. Lieber, "The new history of World War I and what it means for international relations theory." International Security 32.2 (2007): 155-191. online^{[dead link‍]}
5. Grayling 2006, p. 140.
6. Full text Vol I Archived 2016-03-15 at the Wayback Machine and Vol II Archived 2016-03-17 at the Wayback Machine
7. "George Louis Beer Prize Recipients". American Historical Association. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. Retrieved December 24, 2017.
8. Novick, Peter. That Noble Dream: The Objectivity Question and the American Historical Profession (Cambridge University Press, 1988), pp. 206–222.
9. Schmitt, Bernadotte Everly (September 2, 1937). "The Annexation of Bosnia, 1908–1909, by Bernadotte E. Schmitt, ..." The University Press. Archived from the original on April 15, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2015 – via Google Books.
10. "Education: History Lesson". Time. 1 December 1941. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
11. "Bernadotte Everly Schmitt". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 10 February 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-19.
12. "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2023-04-19.
13. "Bernadotte E. Schmitt Is Dead. Historian Won Pulitzer Prize. Charged Germany With Guilt for World War I in 'The Coming of the War, 1914'". The New York Times. March 24, 1969. Archived from the original on July 22, 2018. Retrieved 2008-07-17.

Bibliography

• Grayling, A. C. (2006). Among the Dead Cities. Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781472534057.
• Lieber, Keir A. "The new history of World War I and what it means for international relations theory." International Security 32.2 (2007): 155–191. online^{[dead link‍]}

Further reading

• Williamson Jr, Samuel R., and Ernest R. May. "An identity of opinion: Historians and July 1914." Journal of Modern History 79.2 (2007): 335–387. online

External links

• Guide to the Bernadotte E. Schmitt Papers 1913-1961 at the University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center
• The University of Chicago Photographic Archive