Sidney Bradshaw Fay

Sidney Bradshaw Fay(April 13, 1876, inWashington, D.C.– August 29, 1967, inLexington, Massachusetts) was an Americanhistorianwhose examination of the causes ofWorld War I,The Origins of the World War(1928; revised edition 1930), remains a classic study. In this book, which won him the 1928George Louis Beer Prizeof theAmerican Historical Association,Fay argued that Germany was too readily blamed for the war and that a great deal of the responsibility instead rested with the Allies, especially Russia and Serbia. His stance is supported by several modern scholars, such asChristopher Clark,but it remains controversial.

Sidney Bradshaw Fay, circa 1922

Fay leftHarvard University(Ph.D. 1900)to study at theSorbonneand theUniversity of Berlin.He taught atDartmouth College(1902–14) andSmith College(1914–29) and, after the publication of his major book, at both Harvard andYale University.

Fay's conclusion was that all the European powers shared in the blame, but he blamed mostly the system of secret alliances that divided Europe after theFranco-Prussian Warinto two mutually suspicious camps of group solidarity:Triple AllianceagainstTriple Entente(Fay's studentAllan B. Calhamer,would later develop and publish the gameDiplomacy,based on this thesis). He consideredAustro-Hungary,SerbiaandRussiato be primarily responsible for the immediate cause of war's outbreak. Other forces besidesmilitarismandnationalismwere at work, as the economics ofimperialismand thenewspaper pressplayed roles.

Fay was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciencesin 1931 and theAmerican Philosophical Societyin 1947.

Fay also wroteThe Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia to 1786(1937).

He married (August 17, 1904) Sarah Eliza Proctor.

Works

• Germany: Revised and Edited from the Work of Bayard Taylor,H. W. Snow, c. 1910 [P. F. Collier & Son Corporation, c. 1939, "Memorial edition" ].
• The Hohenzollern Household and Administration in the Sixteenth Century,with John Spencer Bassett, Dept. of History of Smith College, 1916.
• The Origins of the World War,2 Vols., The Macmillan Company, 1928 [2d ed., 1930].online
• The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia to 1786,,H. Holt and Company, c. 1937 [Reprint, Malabar, Fla.: R.E. Krieger Pub. Co., 1981].
• A Guide to Historical Literature,,edited byGeorge Matthew Dutcher,Henry Robinson Shipman,Sidney Bradshaw Fay,Augustus Hunt Shearer,William Henry Allison,The Macmillan Company, 1937.

Other

• Eduard Fueter (1876–1928),World History, 1815–1920,Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921, Zurich [translated by Sidney Fay, 1922].
• Friedrich Meinecke,The German Catastrophe,Harvard University Press, 1950 [translated by Sidney Fay].

Articles

• "The Roman Law and the German Peasant,"The American Historical Review, Vol. 16, No. 2, Jan. 1911.
• "New Light on the Origins of the World War, I. Berlin and Vienna, to July 29,"The American Historical Review, Vol. 25, No. 4, Jul. 1920.
• "Serajevo Fifteen Years After,"The Living Age, July 1929.
• "June 28, 1914,"in Eugene Lohrke, Armageddon, 1930.
• "Peace-Making: 1919, 1945,"The Forum, November 1945.
• "Our Responsibility for German Universities,"The Forum, January 1946.
• "The First U.N.O. Assembly,"The Forum, April 1946.
• "The Power of the Soviet Press,"The Forum, August 1947.
• "The Marshall Plan: Second Phase,"The Forum, February 1948.
• "Germany's Social Structure,"The Forum, October 1948.

See also

• Causes of World War I

Further reading

• Bender, Wilbur J. "Sidney Bradshaw Fay,"Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society,Third Series, Vol. 79, 1967.in JSTOR
• Schmitt, Bernadotte E."Sidney Bradshaw Fay, 1876–1967,"Central European History, Vol. 1, No. 2, Jun. 1968.

External links

• Bibliography of Sidney Bradshaw Fay