Raymond James Sontag (1897–1972) was an American historian of European diplomacy of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Life

He was born on October 2, 1897. He received his B.S. and M.A. degrees from the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign, Illinois, Champai ...

in 1920 and 1921, and his Ph.D. from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest- ...

in 1924. He died on October 27, 1972.

Career

He was the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History and then chairman of the history department at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

, 1924-1941. He then moved to the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

. He was president of the American Catholic Historical Association in 1952. He served as editor in chief for the publication of captured German Foreign Office documents for the U.S. State Department. He was also American editor for “Nazi‐Soviet Relations, 1939–1941.” In ''A Broken World 1919-1939 '' (1972) Sontag moves far beyond diplomacy/Versailles/Hitler themes and instead looks at Europe in terms of technology—with caused social tensions—and nationalism, which caused conflict between ethnic groups. In the east authoritarian rulers relied on a violent intense nationalism to gain and maintain power, suppress minorities, and stop reform. Everywhere the non-Communist left found it hard to reconcile nationalism and social progress. There was increasing discontinuity as the escalating crises baffled statesmen.Raymond J. Sontag, "Between the Wars." ''Pacific Historical Review'' 29.1 (1960): 1-1
online

Bibliography

* ''European Diplomatic History 1871-1932'' (1933
online free
* "Appeasement, 1937" ''Catholic Historical Review'' 38#4 (1953), pp. 385–39
online
* "The Last Months of Peace, 1939" ''Foreign Affairs'' 35#3 (1957), pp. 507–52
pnline
* "The Origins of the Second World War" ''Review of Politics'' 25#4 (1963), pp. 497–50
online
* ''A Broken World 1919-1939 '' (1972
online free to borrow
* ''Germany and England: Background of Conflict, 1848-1894'' (1972
online free to borrow
* ''Nazi-Soviet Relations 1939-1941: Documents from the Archives of the German Foreign Office ''

References

External links

Sontag, Raymond James 1897-1972 [WorldCat Identities]
1897 births 1972 deaths 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers University of Illinois alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Princeton University faculty University of California, Berkeley faculty Historians from California 20th-century American male writers {{US-historian-stub