CRAIG, Gordon A(lexander) 1913-

PERSONAL: Born November 26, 1913, in Glasgow, Scotland; came to the United States in 1925; U.S. citizen by derivation; son of Frank Mansfield (a compositor) and Jane (Bissell) Craig; married Phyllis Halcomb (director of a school), June 16, 1939; children: Susan, Deborah Gordon, Martha Jane, Charles Grant. Education: Princeton University, B.A., 1936, M.A., 1939, Ph.D., 1941; Balliol College, Oxford, B.Litt., 1938. Politics: Democrat. Religion: Presbyterian.

ADDRESSES: Home—451 Oak Grove Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025. Office—Department of History, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. E-mail—[email protected]

CAREER: Yale University, New Haven, CT, instructor in history, 1939-41; Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, instructor, 1941-43, assistant professor, 1943-46, associate professor, 1946-50, professor of history, 1950-61; Stanford University, Stanford, CA, professor of history, 1961-69, J. E. Wallace Sterling Professor of Humanities, beginning 1969, currently professor emeritus. Visiting professor, Columbia University, 1947-48, 1949-50; professor of modern history, Free University of Berlin, beginning 1962; fellow, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, 1956-57; research associate, Office of Strategic Services, 1942; special assistant, U.S. Department of State, 1943; member of social science advisory board, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, 1964-70; member of U.S. Air Force Academy advisory council, 1968-71. Military service: U.S. Marine Corps Reserve, beginning 1944; now captain (retired).

MEMBER: International Committee of Historical Sciences (vice-president, 1975-85), USAF Academy (advisory board member, 1968-73), American Historical Association (president, 1981), American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Political Science, Berlin Historical Commission (honorary member), Phi Beta Kappa (visiting scholar, 1965, 1972; senator, 1980-85).

AWARDS, HONORS: Rhodes scholar, 1936-38; Henry Baxter Adams Prize of American Historical Association, 1956, for The Politics of the Prussian Army,1640-1945; Guggenheim fellow, 1969-70 and 1982-83; D. Litt, Princeton University, 1970; Gold Medal for Nonfiction, Commonwealth Club of California, 1979, and Historikerpreis of Muenster, West Germany, 1980, both for Germany, 1866-1945; Los Angeles Times history prize nomination, 1982, and American Book Award nomination in history, 1983, both for The Germans; D. Phil, Free University of Berlin, 1983; D. Hum., Ball State University, 1984; Commander's Cross of the Legion of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, 1984; Goethe medal, Goethe Inst., Fed. Republic Germany, 1987; Polit. Book prize Ebert Stiftung, 1988; Max Gerlinger prize, Max Gerlinger Foundation, Zurich, 1991; Fellow Ctr. for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Bayerische Academy Schonen Kunste, Brit. Academy; honorable fellow, Balliol College, Oxford University, 1989.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Edward Meade Earle and Felix Gilbert) Makers of Modern Strategy: Military Thought from Machiavelli to Hitler, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1943, reprinted, 1971, 1986.

(Editor, with Gilbert) The Diplomats, 1919-1939, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1953, reprinted, Atheneum, 1971.

The Politics of the Prussian Army, 1640-1945, Clarendon Press (Oxford), 1955.

From Bismarck to Adenauer: Aspects of German Statecraft, Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD), 1958, revised edition, Harper (New York), 1965.

Europe since 1815, Holt (New York), 1961, 2nd edition published as Europe, 1815-1914, 1968, 3rd edition published as Europe since 1815, 1971, alternate edition, 1974.

The Battle of Koeniggraetz: Prussia's Victory over Austria, 1866, Lippincott (Philadelphia, PA), 1964.

War, Politics and Diplomacy: Selected Essays, Praeger (New York), 1966.

(Editor and author of introduction) Herbert Rosinski, The German Army, Praeger (New York), 1966.

Military Policy and National Security, Kennikat, 1972.

(Editor and author of introduction) Heinrich Gotthard von Treitschke, History of Germany in the Nineteenth Century: Selections from the Translations of Eden and Cedar Paul, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1975.

(Editor and author of introduction) Economic Interest, Militarism and Foreign Policy: Essays by Eckart Kahr, University of California Press, 1977.

Germany, 1866-1945, Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1978.

The Germans, Putnam (New York), 1982, New American Library (New York), 1983, Meridian (New York), 1991.

(With Alexander L. George) Force and Statecraft: Diplomatic Problems of Our Times, Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1983.

The End of Prussia: The Corti Lectures, 1982, University of Wisconsin Press (Madison, WI), 1984.

(Editor, with Felix Gilbert) The Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, edited by Peter Paret, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1986.

The Triumph of Liberalism: Zurich in the Golden Age, 1830-1869, Scribner (New York, NY), 1988.

(With Nicolas Bouvier, Lionel Gossman) Geneva, Zurich, Basel: History, Culture and National Identity, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1994.

(With Felix Gilbert) The Diplomats, 1939-1979, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1994.

The Politics of the Unpolitical: German Writers and the Problem of Power, 1770-1871, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1995.

Theodor Fontane: Literature and History in the Bismarck Reich, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Politics and Culture in Modern Germany: Essays from The New York Review of Books, Society for the Promotion of Science and Scholarship (Palo Alto, CA), 1999.

Also contributor to The Second Chance: America and the Peace, edited by John B. Whitton, 1944, reprinted, Books for Libraries Press, 1971, and The Quest for a Principle of Authority in Europe, 1715-Present, 1948; and Forty Years of the Grundgessetz (Basic Law), edited by Hartmut Lehmann and Kenneth F. Ledford, in conjunction with the Research Fellows of the German Historical Institute, The Institute (Washington, DC), 1990.

SIDELIGHTS: Few American historians are as well versed in the history, politics, and modern culture of Germany as Gordon A. Craig. As Fritz Stern related in a New York Times Book Review article, Craig "first visited Germany as a student in 1935, attracted by the country's cultural richness, appalled by 'the many examples that I encountered of abuse of culture and, indeed, of inhumanity and barbarism.'" In the ensuing decades he became an authoritative interpreter of German political history, known especially for his study of the Prussian army and for Germany, 1866-1945.

In Germany, 1866-1945, Craig examines a most important period of that country's history: the establishment, rise, and fall of the Reich, beginning with the Bismarckian empire and ending with Germany's surrender in World War II. The period was characterized by a devotion to the militia and authority in general; it was also during that time that some of Germany's most distinguished literature was published. While New York Times Book Review contributor H. R. Trevor-Roper described Craig's book as "somewhat austere," he also cited "excellent chapters on the Weimar experiment; [the author] is particularly good on Gustav Stresemann, whose patient and successful foreign policy was frustrated by the economic and political weakness of the Republic; and he recognizes and illustrates the real political genius that enabled Hitler to re-create, out of that weakness, a new structure of authoritarian power even more formidable, because it was less conservative than the old."

New Republic reviewer Charles Maier found "individual judgments sensible and sound" in Germany, 1866-1945, adding, "Without being strident or anti-German as such, [the author] is as critical in his views of the 19th-century governing system as even the most acerbic German historians of the Empire. Craig's Germany enforced conformity, suppressed socialist dissent, had an egregious record on women's rights even in an epoch where no society had a good one; it encouraged lickspittle subordination to military display and bureaucratic authority.... Finally, Craig does not spare the German resistance to Hitler: honoring its bravery, he is frank about its often romantic and conservative objectives. He also reminds us how little of it there was."

In a companion book, The Germans, Craig presents a more contemporary view of Germany against a historical backdrop. "His method is to take a subject—religion, say—and go as far back as necessary to explain recent developments and the position of the German churches today," according to a New Yorker critic. Craig deals not only with religion, but with soldiers, women, "and other modern German themes," said Amos Perlmutter in a New Republic piece. "The section on 'Berlin: Athens on the Spree and City of Crisis' is nostalgic and evocative, a past-and-present tour from an expert guide. The Germans is freewheeling, surprisingly entertaining for a scholarly book, and extremely eloquent." Stern, in his New York Times Book Review article, was likewise impressed: "It is impossible to convey fully the richness of the book. It is a splendid introduction to some of the characteristics of German life, past and present."

More than forty years ago, Craig collaborated with Felix Gilbert on a collection of essays called The Diplomats, 1919-1939. In 1994, Craig worked with co-editor Francis Loewenheim to produce a sequel to the original collection. In the first collection, Craig focused on the diplomats of Europe. In the second, The Diplomats, 1939-1979, the essays include information on the diplomatic corps from Asia and the Middle East, an element that was missing in the first. In the more recent volume, there is more attention to the political leaders, which signals, according to Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., writing for Foreign Affairs, "the decline of diplomacy as an autonomous profession." Schlesinger commented that during previous centuries, international relations were overseen primarily by ambassadors "skilled in manipulating balances of power." Schlesinger added that these nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century diplomats were "self-contained. Public opinion was irrelevant...."

That all changed with the rise in democracy. "Ordinary people now felt entitled to a larger share in decisions that might send them out to die," Schlesinger explained. International concerns became a matter of what was right and what was wrong, not what the diplomats themselves decided. The essays in this collection reflect those changes, some of them splendidly so, according to Schlesinger. Mentioning particularly "illuminating" essays, William I. Hitchcock of The Historian pointed out five written about non-Western nations, which he found to "constitute the most innovative component of the collection."

In 1999, Craig saw publication of Theodor Fontane: Literature and History in the Bismarck Reich and Politics and Culture in Modern Germany: Essays from the New York Review of Books. In Theodor Fontane, Craig covers much of the life and most of the works of this very famous and very versatile German author. Fontane, born in 1819, wrote poems, ballads, travel pieces, military history, theatre criticism, novels, short stories, and worked as a journalist. Although best known for his novels, two other areas of his writing appear to have gained Craig's interest—that of his travel writing, in which Fontane also included historical accounts for each place he visited, and that of his theatre writing. Fontane's works have not enjoyed a large following in non-German-speaking countries, and his books have been slow to be translated into English. Reflecting on this, Dennis Drabelle of the Atlantic Monthly commented, "If Gordon Craig's useful introduction to Fontane's life and works leads to an expansion of this list [of translated works], he will have performed a distinct service for lovers of sophisticated European fiction." A similar sentiment was expressed by Stern, writing for the New Republic: "Gordon Craig's book should inspire the same resolve: we should read and reread Fontane—in the few translations that are available—for aesthetic pleasure and historical instruction, and as an indispensable commentary on a still-peaceful Germany with its moral and political dilemmas only partially concealed." Then Stern added, "And for further instruction we should read Craig's historical works as well. They belong together, the affinity holds."

Craig's Politics and Culture in Modern Germany covers the period from 1800 to the present. Here, Craig uses specific books written about Germany as a "starting point" for his "own reflections," Stuart Parkes of the Journal of European Studies explained. The books that have inspired Craig's thought cover such cultural figures as the authors Heinrich and Thomas Mann, themes about the Third Reich and the German Jewish population, and a discussion about the future of Germany. Parkes concluded, "Most specialists in the fields of German and European Studies will find something new" in this collection; while every reader "will surely admire the style of the writing, not least the elegance of the indirect approach to the topic that is such a characteristic feature of many of the fascinating essays in this collection."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Atlantic Monthly, October, 2000, Volume 286, number 4, Dennis Drabelle, "The Dickens of Berlin," review of Theodor Fontane: Literature and History in the Bismarck Reich, p. 134.

Foreign Affairs, July-August, 1994, Volume 73, number 4, Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., review of The Diplomats, 1939-1979, pp. 146-51.

Historian, winter 1996, Volume 58, number 2, William I. Hitchcock, review of The Diplomats, 1939-1979, pp. 427-28.

Journal of American History, December, 1995, Volume 82, number 3, Douglas Brinkley, review of The Diplomats, 1939-1979, p. 1273.

Journal of European Studies, September, 2000, Volume 30, number 3, Stuart Parkes, review of Politics and Culture in Modern Germany: Essays from The New York Review of Books, p. 349.

Journal of Modern History, December, 2001, Volume 73, number 4, Henry H. H. Remak, review of Theodor Fontane: Literature and History in the Bismarck Reich, pp. 980-83.

London Review of Books, December 13, 2001, Ruth Franklin, "Halfway to Siberia," review of Theodor Fontane: Literature and History in the Bismarck Reich, pp. 31-32.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 3, 1983.

New Republic, October 7, 1978, February 24, 1982, March 7, 1983; September 8, Volume 195, Scott D. Sagan, review of The Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, pp. 34-38; March 5, 2001, Fritz Stern, review of Theodor Fontane: Literature and History in the Bismarck Reich, p. 37.

New Yorker, September 11, 1978, February 8, 1982.

New York Review of Books, January 25, 1979, May 31, 1984.

New York Times Book Review, January 21, 1979, March 14, 1982; April 13, 1986, John Gooch, review of The Makers of Modern Strategy: From Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age, p. 34; June 18, 1989, Raymond Grew, review of The Triumph of Liberalism: Zurich in the Golden Age, 1830-1869, p. 15.

Pacific Affairs, fall, 1995, Volume 68, number 3, Donald W. Klein, review of The Diplomats: 1939-1979, pp. 412-13.

Publishers Weekly, March 24, 1989, Volume 235, number 12, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of The Triumph of Liberalism: Zurich in the Golden Age, 1830-1869, p. 56.

Times Literary Supplement, October 6, 1978; October 5, 1984; April 26, 1996, number 4856, D. J. Enright, review of The Politics of the Unpolitical: German Writers and the Problem of Power, 1770-1871, p. 29.

Washington Post Book World, March 20, 1983; May 8, 1983.*