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Claude G. Bowers

Claude Gernade Bowers (November 20, 1878 – January 21, 1958) was a newspaper columnist and editor, author of best-selling books on American history, Democratic Party politician, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's ambassador to Spain (1933–1939) and Chile (1939–1953).[1] His histories of the Democratic Party in its formative years from the 1790s to the 1830s helped shape the party's self-image as a powerful force against monopoly and privilege. Bowers was a sharp critic of Republicans and their Reconstruction policies for African American voting rights and civil rights.

Claude Bowers

Claude Gernade Bowers

(1878-11-20)November 20, 1878
Westfield, Indiana, U.S.

January 21, 1958(1958-01-21) (aged 79)
New York, New York, U.S.

Sybil McCaslin Bowers

Patricia Bowers

High school

  • Newspaper writer and editor
  • senatorial secretary
  • ambassador to Spain and Chile

English

First half of twentieth century

1916–1953

The Party Battles of the Jackson Period (1922)
Jefferson and Hamilton: The Struggle for Democracy in America (1925)
The Tragic Era: The Revolution after Lincoln (1929)

Bowers was ambassador to Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). At first he recommended the United States join other nations in a Non-intervention Agreement. When it soon became clear that Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, in violation of the Agreement, were openly helping the Nationalist rebels, he unsuccessfully pressed Washington to aid the government of the Spanish Republic. He left Spain when it became clear, in early 1939, that the rebels, led by the dictator Francisco Franco, had won the war. Later that year, he became U.S. Ambassador to Chile, which had a leftist government more to his liking.


In domestic affairs he considered himself a staunch Jeffersonian, and was increasingly dismayed at the New Deal interventions into the economy, but kept quiet about it.


Three of Bower's books were genuine best-sellers, "but he is little remembered today except by political historians".[2]

(1916)

The Irish Orators: A History of Ireland's Fight for Freedom

(1918) Introduction by Vice President Thomas R. Marshall.

The Life of John Worth Kern

(1922)

The Party Battles of the Jackson Period

(1925; German translation, 1948; Italian translation, 1955) Long review in The New York Times.

Jefferson and Hamilton: The Struggle for Democracy in America

Gerry Jr., Elbridge (1927). Bowers, Claude G. (ed.). . Brentano's.

The Diary of Elbridge Gerry Jr.; with a preface and footnotes by Claude G. Bowers

Bowers, Claude G. (1927). . Reading with a purpose. American Library Association.

The Founders of the Republic

Bowers, Claude G. (1929). . Houghton Mifflin.

The Tragic Era: The Revolution after Lincoln

(1932)

Beveridge and the Progressive Era

(1936)

Jefferson in Power: The Death Struggle of the Federalists

The Spanish Adventures of Washington Irving (1940; Spanish translation, 1946)

(1945)

The Young Jefferson, 1743-1789

(1950)

Pierre Vergniaud: Voice of the French Revolution

Making Democracy a Reality. Jefferson, Jackson, and Polk (J. P. Young lectures in American history, 1954)

(1954; French translation, 1956; Spanish translation, 1966; Italian translation, 1957)

My Mission to Spain: Watching the Rehearsal for World War II

Chile Through Embassy Windows, 1939-1953 (1958; Spanish translation, 1939)

(1962)

My Life: The Memoirs of Claude Bowers

Indianapolis in the 'Gay Nineties': High School Diaries of Claude G. Bowers, edited by Holman Hamilton and (1964)

Gayle Thornbrough

Books


Articles, columns, and speeches

Jones, Kenneth Paul, ed. U.S. Diplomats in Europe, 1919–41 (ABC-CLIO. 1981) on Bowsers' role in Europe, pp 129–148.

online

Sehlinger, Peter J.; Hamilton, Holman (2000). . Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society. ISBN 0871951452.

Spokesman for Democracy: Claude G. Bowers, 1878-1958

Spencer, Thomas T. (1996). . Indiana Magazine of History. Vol. 92, no. 1. pp. 26–45.

"'Old' Democrats and New Deal Politics: Claude G. Bowers, James A. Farley, and the Changing Democratic Party, 1933-1940"

Hrenchir, Mary Josephine (1993). . Etd Collection for University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Nebraska - Lincoln: 1–299.

"Claude G. Bowers and American foreign relations"

Jessner, Sabine, and Peter J. Sehlinger. "Claude G. Bowers: A Partisan Hoosier." Indiana Magazine of History (1987): 217–243.

online

Roberts, George C. "Claude G. Bowers: Hoosier Historian and the Politics of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow." Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences. Vol. 17. (1982).

Blodgett, Geoffrey T. (1965). "The Dawning World of Claude Bowers". . 61 (2): 157–170. JSTOR 27789239.

Indiana Magazine of History

Knight, Oliver (September 1956). "Claude G. Bowers, Historian". . 52 (3): 247–268. JSTOR 27788370.

Indiana Magazine of History

Bell, Landon Covington (January 1930). "The Lincoln myths are passing—but slowly: Bowers' Tragic era". Tyler's quarterly historical and geneaological magazine.  808866618.

OCLC

Notes


Bibliography

at Internet Archive

Works by or about Claude G. Bowers

at Project Gutenberg

Works by Claude G. Bowers

Indiana Journalism Hall of Fame - Claude G. Bowers