Farnham, Barbara

(Barbara Rearden Farnham)

PERSONAL: Education: Columbia University, Ph.D., 1991.

ADDRESSES: Office— Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, 420 W. 118th St., 13th Fl., IAB, New York, NY 10027.

CAREER: Columbia University, Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, New York, NY, senior associate, 1994—. Lecturer at Hunter College, 1989-91, and Princeton University, 1991.

AWARDS, HONORS: John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies postdoctoral fellow, 1992-93; Erik H. Erikson Award, International Society of Political Psychology, 2001.

WRITINGS

(With Alexander Farnham) Kingwood Township of Yesteryear, Kingwood Studio Publications (Stockton, NJ), 1988.

(Editor) Avoiding Losses/Taking Risks: Prospect Theory and International Conflict, University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI), 1994.

Roosevelt and the Munich Crisis: A Study of Political Decision-Making, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 1997.

Contributor to books, including Good Judgment and Foreign Policy, edited by Stanley Renshon and Deborah Larson, Rowman & Littlefield (Lanham, MD), 2003. Contributor to journals, including Political Psychology and International Studies Quarterly.

SIDELIGHTS: Barbara Farnham is a scholar of geopolitical studies whose Roosevelt and the Munich Crisis: A Study of Political Decision-Making is a consideration of the ongoing controversy over Franklin Roosevelt’s response to the Nazi threat in Europe. In studying Roosevelt’s policy from 1936 to 1941, Farnham writes that the president used a “political approach to decision-making,” but after Adolf Hitler threatened war over Czechoslovakia he took a stronger position in providing aid to the European allies. His appeasement of American isolationists, however, prevented him from actually intervening. He warned of the dangers of fascism but did not modify his stance until he clearly perceived Hitler to be a danger.

Thomas W. Zeiler wrote in H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences:“Farnham’s message is clear: decision-makers have to compromise in the face of resistance, but they do not give in or orchestrate quid pro quos. Instead, they try to satisfy multiple interests—which is what Roosevelt did.”History: Review of New Books critic T. Michael Ruddy commented: “Using her theory of political decision making, Farnham effectively weaves together the diverse and contradictory aspects of Roosevelt’s policy into a coherent description of a president intent on acting to address American security needs but responsive to domestic political restraints.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

PERIODICALS

American Political Science Review, June, 1999, Stephen G. Walker, review of Roosevelt and the Munich Crisis: A Study of Political Decision-Making, p. 482.

History: Review of New Books, fall, 1998, T. Michael Ruddy, review of Roosevelt and the Munich Crisis.

Perspectives on Political Science, fall, 1998, Mark J. Rozell, review of Roosevelt and the Munich Crisis, p. 235.

ONLINE

Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies Web site, http://www.columbia.edu/cu/siwps/ (January 10, 2006), brief biography of Barbara Farnham.

H-Net: Humanities and Social Sciences Online, http://www.h-net.msu.edu/ (January 10, 2006), Thomas W. Zeiler, review of Roosevelt and the Munich Crisis.*