Archibald Cary Coolidge

Archibald Cary Coolidge (born March 6, 1866 in Boston , Massachusetts , † January 14, 1928 there ) was an American diplomat and historian .

Coolidge came from a prominent Boston family and studied history at Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude in 1887. He also studied at the École des Sciences Politiques in Paris , the University of Berlin and the University of Freiburg , where he received his doctorate in 1892 ( Theoretical and foreign elements in the formation of the American constitution ). He was then an instructor at Harvard, assistant professor in 1899 and professor of history in 1908. In addition, he was director of the Harvard University Library from 1910 and expanded it greatly. In 1910 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

In addition to his academic career, before his professorship at Harvard, he was repeatedly in the US diplomatic service. In 1890/91 he was secretary of the American embassy in Saint Petersburg , in 1892 private secretary of the American ambassador in Paris and in 1893 secretary of the American embassy in Vienna . Towards the end of the First World War he belonged to Woodrow Wilson's circle , was sent to Russia by the Foreign Ministry in 1918 and to Vienna ( Coolidge Mission ) in 1919 to observe political events and report to the US delegates at the Paris Peace Conference . In 1921 he organized humanitarian aid for Russia, which was hit by a famine .

As a historian, he dealt with the history of diplomacy, especially in the 19th century. One of his focal points was Russian history, but he also initiated and promoted historical research, especially in areas previously neglected at Harvard and the USA, such as Turkey, Northern Europe, the Far East, Latin America and Slavic studies.

In 1906 he was visiting professor in Paris and in 1913 in Berlin. He was one of the founders of the Council on Foreign Relations and from 1922 was the first editor of its journal Foreign Affairs .

Fonts

• The United States as a World Power , Macmillan 1908
  • German translation: The United States as a world power; a reflection on international politics , translated by Walter Lichtenstein, Mittler, Berlin 1908
• The Origins of the Triple Alliance. Three Lectures , New York: Scribners 1917
• Ten Years of War and Peace , Harvard University Press 1927

Web links

• Coolidge Papers, Harvard University Archives