Timeline – 1950 – “Wisconsin School” #2

Image is of a note from Bill Williams (William Appleman Williams) to the Department of History in August 1958. Note says “I think this is ok. One item you might want. In February 1959, the World Publishing Company will publish a new book of mine: The Tragedy of American Diplomacy. It might just catch on.”
Found in the Archives. A note from Bill Williams (William Appleman Williams) to the Department of History in August 1958. The note says “I think this is ok. One item you might want. In February 1959, the World Publishing Company will publish a new book of mine: The Tragedy of American Diplomacy. It might just catch on.”

In the late 1950s, a second “Wisconsin School” emerged in the Department of History, centered around diplomatic historian William Appleman Williams, who did his PhD (1950) in our department with Fred Harvey Harrington. He returned to the UW from the University of Oregon in 1957 and left in 1968 to take a position at Oregon State.

Williams’ 1959 book, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy, deemed by his biographers to be “probably the most important book ever to appear on the history of U.S. foreign policy,” challenged the existing historiography by recasting the U.S. as an imperialist power.

Sources: William Appleman Williams Papers, 1877-2012, Oregon State Universiy Special Collections & Archives; “Found in the Archives: ‘It Just Might Catch on,'” L&S News, Arts & Humanities, October 2, 2012.