Tyler Dennett (June 13, 1883

Spencer, Wisconsin Spencer is a village in Marathon County, Wisconsin. It is part of the Wausau, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,925 at the 2010 census. The village, which lies between two marshes (Spencer Marsh to the northwest and Mc ...

– December 29, 1949 in

Geneva, New York Geneva is a City (New York), city in Ontario County, New York, Ontario and Seneca County, New York, Seneca counties in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is at the northern end of Seneca Lake (New York), Seneca Lake; all land port ...

) was an American historian and educator, best known for his book ''

John Hay John Milton Hay (October 8, 1838July 1, 1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln, Hay's highest office was Un ...

: From Poetry to Politics'' (1933), which won the 1934

Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography The Pulitzer Prize for Biography is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It has been presented since 1917 for a distinguished biography, autobiography or memoir by an American author o ...

. In 1900, Dennett enrolled at

Bates College Bates College () is a private liberal arts college in Lewiston, Maine. Anchored by the Historic Quad, the campus of Bates totals with a small urban campus which includes 33 Victorian Houses as some of the dormitories. It maintains of nature p ...

and then transferred to

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

as a sophomore. After his graduation in the spring of 1904 and a year of work in

Williamstown, Massachusetts Williamstown is a town in the northern part of Berkshire County, in the northwest corner of Massachusetts, United States. It shares a border with Vermont to the north and New York to the west. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts Metropolit ...

he attended the Union Theological Seminary, where he was awarded a diploma in 1908. He served briefly as a

Congregational Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

minister before leaving to pursue a career in journalism. In 1922, he published ''Americans in Eastern Asia'', a study of American policy in the Far East, which was well received and was long held as an important work in the field. Dennett published "President Roosevelt's Secret Pact with Japan" in 1924, the subject of which came to be known as the

Taft–Katsura Agreement The , also known as the Taft-Katsura Memorandum, was a 1905 discussion between senior leaders of Japan and the United States regarding the positions of the two nations in greater East Asian affairs, especially regarding the status of Korea and the ...

. The paper put forth the thesis that formerly-isolationist Japan and the US began to carve up their

spheres of influence In the field of international relations, a sphere of influence (SOI) is a spatial region or concept division over which a state or organization has a level of cultural, economic, military or political exclusivity. While there may be a formal al ...

, which would later become world empires, with the agreement, which was therefore of first-class importance historically. Later historians questioned that interpretation. Dennett was awarded a Ph.D. in history from

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

in 1925 after doing research on

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

and the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

. He taught American history at

(1923–24) and at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

(1927–28), and

international relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

(1931–34). Dennett served as president of

(1934–37), resigning after a disagreement with the college's board of trustees. He died in 1949. Among his numerous scholarly writings were ''The Democratic Movement in Asia'' (1918)Williams bio of President Dennett
/ref> and ''A Better World'' (1920).

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dennett, Tyler 1883 births 1949 deaths People from Spencer, Wisconsin Writers from Wisconsin 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 20th-century American biographers American male biographers Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography winners Presidents of Williams College Johns Hopkins University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty Williams College alumni Historians of American foreign relations 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American academics

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