George Louis Beer
| George Louis Beer | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
July 26, 1872 Staten Island, NY, USA |
| Died | March 15, 1920 (aged 47) New York, NY, USA |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1893 - 1923 |
| Subject | American History, Colonial History |
| Notable awards | Loubat Prize (1913) |
George Louis Beer (July 26, 1872 – March 15, 1920) was a renowned American historian of the "Imperial school".
Born in Staten Island, New York, to an affluent family that was prominent in New York's German-Jewish community, Beer's father owned a successful tobacco importing business. He studied at Columbia University, where he received the A.B. degree (1892) and then an A.M. degree in 1893. Beer's master's thesis ("The Commercial Policy of England Toward the American Colonies") was supervised by Professor Herbert Levi Osgood and was immediately published in the Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law. He taught European History at Columbia from 1893 to 1897 while also working in the tobacco business. After retiring from business in 1903, he devoted his time to extensive research in British archives, and wrote three highly regarded and influential books on the British-American colonial period. In 1913 he was the first Loubat Prize recipient for The Origins of the British Colonial System, 1578-1660, one of those books. His work The English Speaking Peoples, was published in 1917. He stressed the successful workings of the commercial dimensions of the British Empire and was part of the "Imperial School" which emphasized the economic benefits and efficient administration of the Empire. He was American correspondent of the British Round Table Journal.
Beer served as colonial expert to President Wilson's American Commission of Inquiry during World War I and attended the Paris Peace Conference as a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, for which he was chief of the Colonial Division in 1918-1919. He was also a member of the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, and was appointed director of the Mandatory Section of the League's Secretariat in 1919.
...
Wikipedia