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William Edward Dodd (October 21, 1869 near Clayton, North Carolina – February 9, 1940 near Round Hill, Virginia)〔(ncpedia.org )〕 was an American historian, author and diplomat. A liberal Democrat, he served as the United States Ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937 during the Nazi era. Initially a holder of the slightly Antisemitic notions of his times, he went to Germany with unofficial instructions from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to do what he could to protest Nazi treatment of Jews in Germany "unofficially," while also attempting to follow official State Department instructions to maintain cordial official diplomatic relations. Convinced from first hand observation that the Nazis were an increasing threat, he resigned over his inability to mobilize the Roosevelt administration, particularly the State Department, to counter the Nazis prior to the start of World War II. ==Early years and academic career== Dodd was born on October 21, 1869 on a farm near Clayton, North Carolina. He was of English or Scottish descent, his paternal ancestors having lived in America since the 1740s when the first of the family to arrive in the New World, Daniel Dodd, settled among the Highland Scots in the Cape Fear Valley. Dodd earned his bachelor's degree from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) in 1895 and a master's degree in 1897. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of Leipzig in 1900. He and his wife Martha married on December 25, 1901. They had two children, a daughter, Martha, who became a Communist agent, and a son, William E. Dodd, Jr.〔 Dodd learned a class-conscious view of Southern history from his family, which taught him that slaveholders were responsible for the Civil War. His semi-literate and impoverished father supported his family only through the generosity of wealthier relatives, whom Dodd came to view as "hard men, those traders and aristocratic masters of their dependents".〔Bailey, "Virginia Scholar," 324–6〕 Dodd taught history at Randolph–Macon College from 1900 to 1908. His instruction there was at times controversial, because it included attacks on Southern aristocratic values. In 1902, he wrote an article in ''The Nation'' in which he complained of pressure to flatter Southern elites and their view that slavery played no role in the onset of the Civil War. He criticized the Grand Camp of Confederate Veterans by name.〔Bailey, "Free Speech," 261–3〕 Confederate societies called for his dismissal. Dodd explained that "To suggest that the revolt from the union in 1860 was not justified, was not led by the most lofty minded statesmen, is to invite not only criticism but an enforced resignation." University administrators supported him and he attacked his accusers and detailed their distortions of Southern history.〔Bailey, "Virginia Scholar", 327–8. See also William E. Dodd, "Some Difficulties of the History Teacher in the South," ''South Atlantic Quarterly'', vol. 3, October 1940, 117–22〕 When recruited by the University of Chicago, he began his 25-year career as Professor of American History there in 1908.〔Dodd declined an offer from the University of California, Berkeley, the following year. Stephenson, 35〕 Dodd was the first, and for many years the only, college or university professor fully devoted to the history of the American South.〔Stephenson, 36〕 He produced many scholarly works, both articles and books, and won excellent reviews as a teacher.〔Stephenson, 37–8〕 Though much of his scholarship was superseded in later years, he helped to model a new approach to regional history: sympathetic, judicious, and less partisan than the work of earlier generations. In a letter to President Theodore Roosevelt, he described his approach: "The purpose of my studying and writing history is to strike a balance somewhat between the North and the South, but not to offer any defense of any thing."〔Stephenson, 41〕 Dodd wrote a biography of Thomas Jefferson in German.〔 Dodd was a Democrat, active in Chicago politics.〔 In 1912 he wrote speeches for presidential candidate Woodrow Wilson.〔Stephenson, 50〕 He became a friend of President Wilson, visited him in the White House frequently, and authored a biography of him, ''Woodrow Wilson and his Work'', that appeared in 1920.〔Bailey, "Virginia Scholar," 323, 330〕 He was an early opponent of the theory that German imperialism was solely responsible for World War I.〔 He gave speeches on behalf of Wilson and U.S. participation in the League of Nations, and in 1920 he reviewed the League-related parts of the speech Ohio Governor James M. Cox gave when accepting the Democratic nomination for the presidency.〔Stephenson, 50–2〕 In the 1920s, following Wilson's death, Dodd lectured on his administration and its accomplishments, revised the biography he had written, and co-edited the six-volumes of ''The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson''. He wrote in defense of Wilson for both scholarly journals and the popular press. Through these efforts, he developed connections to a number of figures in the Democratic Party establishment, including Josephus Daniels, Daniel C. Roper, and Edward M. House. Dodd held several positions as an officer of the American Historical Association and was named the organization's president for 1934.〔Henry E. Bourne, "Urbana Meeting American Historical Association," ''American Historical Review'', vol. 39, no. 3 (April 1934), 441〕 Dodd long planned to write a multi-volume history of the American South. As he reached his sixties, he found the prospect of completing it increasingly unlikely given his academic responsibilities.〔Larson, 10〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「William Dodd (ambassador)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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