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Samuel Flagg Bemis

サミューエル・フラッグ・ベミス

Samyueru Furaggu Bemisu

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1891-10-20 （Worcester, Massachusetts）
Died
1973-09-26 （Bridgeport, Connecticut） age 81
Nationality
United States
Languages
English
Religion
Unknown
Residence History
Worcester, Massachusetts → Colorado Springs, Colorado (Colorado College) → Walla Walla, Washington (Whitman College) → Washington, D.C. (George Washington University) → New Haven, Connecticut (Yale University)

Career

Occupations
Historian, Biographer, Diplomatic Historian
Active Years
1916-1973
Affiliations
Colorado College, Whitman College, George Washington University, Yale University
Memberships
American Historical Association (President, 1961), American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Fellow, 1958)
Influenced By
George Hubbard Blakeslee, Edward Channing, J. Franklin Jameson
Influenced
Robert H. Ferrell, John A. DeNovo, William W. Kaufmann

Education

Clark University
History
Degree: B.A.
Period: 1908-1912
Year of Graduation: 1912
Country: United States
Influenced by George Hubbard Blakeslee
Clark University
History
Degree: A.M.
Period: 1912-1913
Year of Graduation: 1913
Country: United States
Harvard University
History
Degree: Ph.D.
Period: 1913-1916
Year of Graduation: 1916
Country: United States
Doctoral advisor: Edward Channing, other advisor: J. Franklin Jameson

Awards

Pulitzer Prize for History
1927
Work: Pinckney's Treaty: America's Advantage from Europe's Distress, 1783–1800
Organization: Columbia University
Result: Winner
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
1950
Work: John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy
Organization: Columbia University
Result: Winner
Knights of Columbus Historical Prize
1924
Work: Jay's Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy
Organization: Knights of Columbus
Result: Winner
Guggenheim Fellowship
1954
Category: Creative Arts-Biography
Organization: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
Result: Fellow

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Pinckney's Treaty: America's Advantage from Europe's Distress, 1783–1800

1926 Diplomatic History

Study of Pinckney's Treaty, winner of 1927 Pulitzer Prize for History.

American DiplomacyTreaty Negotiations

John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy

1949 Biography

Biography of John Quincy Adams' diplomatic career, winner of 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Biography.

American Foreign PolicyStatesmanship

John Quincy Adams and the Union

1956 Biography

Sequel covering Adams from presidency to House of Representatives.

Political HistoryUnionism

The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy

1927 Diplomatic History Series

18-volume series on U.S. Secretaries of State and their diplomacy.

Diplomatic HistorySecretaries of State

Bibliography

  • Jay's Treaty: A Study in Commerce and Diplomacy
  • Pinckney's Treaty: America's Advantage from Europe's Distress, 1783–1800
  • The American Secretaries of State and their Diplomacy (18 vols.)
  • The Hussey-Cumberland Mission and American Independence
  • The Diplomacy of the American Revolution
  • Guide to the Diplomatic History of the United States, 1775–1921 (with Grace Gardner Griffin)
  • A Diplomatic History of the United States
  • The Rayneval Memoranda of 1782 on Western Boundaries and Some Comments on the French Historian Doniol
  • Early Diplomatic Missions from Buenos Aires to the United States, 1811–1824
  • The Latin American Policy of the United States
  • John Quincy Adams and the Foundations of American Foreign Policy
  • John Quincy Adams and the Union

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Strong writing styleAnalytical
Recurring Motifs
American DiplomacyU.S.-Latin American RelationsNationalism

Legacy

Regarded as the greatest historian of early American diplomacy, a founding father of the field. Taught at Yale for many years, won two Pulitzer Prizes.

Academic Societies

  • American Historical Association
  • American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Archives

  • Yale University Library (Samuel Flagg Bemis papers, MS 74)

Quotes

  • The League of Nations has been a disappointing failure. … It has been a failure, not because the United States did not join it; but because the great powers have been unwilling to apply sanctions except where it suited their individual national interests to do so, and because Democracy, on which the original concepts of the League rested for support, has collapsed over half the world.
    Source: His writings

Trivia

  • Born on 'the wrong side of the hedge,' referring to his humble origins.
  • Presidential address to AHA: 'American Foreign Policy and the Blessings of Liberty'.