Background
He was born in New York City, the son of Louisa Waterman and Louis Jacob Feis.
(A scholarly examination of the diplomatic prelude to the ...)
A scholarly examination of the diplomatic prelude to the Japanese attack, by the former Adviser on International Economic Affairs in the State Department. The author's exposition of the developing pattern of Japanese expansion and aggression, derived from extensive use of the records of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and of other Japanese sources, is particularly valuable.
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(The Settlement of Wage Disputes is presented here in a hi...)
The Settlement of Wage Disputes is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Herbert Feis is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Herbert Feis then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.
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(Between War and Peace - The Potsdam Conference by Herbert...)
Between War and Peace - The Potsdam Conference by Herbert Feis.
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(In this book, Mr. Feis depicts the time of triumph, then ...)
In this book, Mr. Feis depicts the time of triumph, then traces the complex web of negotiation preceding the Potsdam conference so that the readers comes to the conference itself with a full understanding of the issues and personalities involved. Mr. Feis then gives an account of the conference which is likely to remain the standard reference.
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(Hc with dj,exlibrary,very good interior text,Pulitzer pri...)
Hc with dj,exlibrary,very good interior text,Pulitzer prize historians portrayal of men and events during a critical moment in American History.
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( "The will to write this book came from a desire to find...)
"The will to write this book came from a desire to find out for myself what happened and why. In the telling of what I learned there is little invention and much care. I have favored consecutiveness over concentration on a few main dramatic occasions or acts. Since the fullness of reality - or truth, if you will - resides in the continuity of influences and behavior, it is to be perceived only by slow travel along the whole stream of eventful detail", writes author Herbert Feis. "... the reader is made to feel that he is actually witnessing the top=level initiation of the Allied coalition policies and strategy of the Second World War. One is in the council chambers of the great on every page..." - Yale Review
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( This is a probing narrative of the history which came t...)
This is a probing narrative of the history which came to its climax at Pearl harbor; an account of the attitudes and actions, of the purposes and persons which brought about the war between the United States and Japan. It is full and impartial. Though written as an independent and private study, records and information of an exceptional range and kind were used in its making. These give it authority. They include all the pertinent State Department papers; the American official military records in preparation; selections from the Roosevelt papers at Hyde Park; the full private diaries of Stimons, Morgenthau, and Grew; the file of the intercepted "Magic" cables; and equivalent collections of official and private Japanese records. The author was at the time in the State Department (as Adviser on International Economic Affairs) and thus in close touch with the men and matters of which he writes. In telling how this war came about, this book tells much of how other wars happen. For it is a close study of the ways in which officials, diplomats, and soldiers think and act; of the environment of decision, of the ambitions of nations, of the clash of their ideas, of the way sin which fear and mistrust affect events, and of the struggle for time and advantage. The narrative follows events in a double mirror of which one side is Washington and the other Tokyo, and synchronizes the images. Thus it traces the ways in which the acts and decisions of this country influenced Japan and vice versa. Originally published in 1950. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
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( Contents: Foreword. Part One: From Pearl Harbor to the ...)
Contents: Foreword. Part One: From Pearl Harbor to the Cairo Conference. Part Two: From the Cairo Conference to the Surrender of Japan. Part Three: From the Surrender of Japan to the Marshall Mission. Originally published in 1953. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
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He was born in New York City, the son of Louisa Waterman and Louis Jacob Feis.
Educated in the public schools of his native city, where his father was a businessman, he received his B. A. degree from Harvard in 1916.
After the war he returned to Harvard and in 1921 received a Ph. D. degree in economics.
In the same year his first book, The Settlement of Wage Disputes, was published. On March 25 of the following year he married Ruth Stanley-Brown, a great-granddaughter of President James Garfield. Feis spent the decade of the 1920's in academe, first at Harvard (1920 - 1921), where he was an instructor in economics; then at the University of Kansas (1922 - 1925), where he was associate professor of economics; and lastly at the University of Cincinnati (1926 - 1929), where he was professor and head of the department of economics.
During these years he published numerous papers, pamphlets, and books on labor relations and also served as industrial relations adviser to the International Labor Office of the League of Nations in Geneva.
The publication in 1930 of his first major book, Europe, the World's Banker, 1870-1914, which he wrote while holding a Guggenheim research fellowship, impressed Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson, who recruited him to serve as economic adviser to the Department of State.
From 1931 to 1947 Feis lived in Washington, D. C. , with his wife and only child. He spent twelve years in the State Department and three with the War Department. During this tenure he shifted the focus of his scholarly interest from labor relations to international economic affairs.
As the Department of State's specialist in this area, he served as chief technical adviser to the U. S. delegation at many of the international conferences held during the 1930's. These included the important World Economic and Monetary Conference of 1933 in London and the various meetings of the Conference of American Republics held in Buenos Aires (1936), Lima (1938), and Panama (1939).
While he was with the State Department Feis wrote The Sinews of Peace (1944), a perceptive and important analysis of the complex economic problems that awaited the nations of the world after World War II was over.
In 1947 Feis left government service and embarked on a new career as a historian. His years as a Washington insider, where he was witness to many of the events about which he wrote, gave him a sure grasp of his subject. His 1947 book, Seen from E. A. : Three International Episodes, inaugurated a series of eleven books published over the ensuing twenty-five years, which together offer a comprehensive history of American foreign policy from 1933 to 1950.
Written from the distinctive perspective of an eyewitness, these volumes trace the tortuous course the United States followed in abandoning its traditional isolationism for a policy of global intervention. Included among these eleven books was Feis's important five-volume diplomatic history of World War II published by Princeton University Press. The first volume, The Road to Pearl Harbor:
The Coming of the War Between the United States and Japan (1950), utilized for the first time both Japanese and American government documents to describe events leading to the United States' entry into the war. The last of the volumes, Japan Subdued: The Atomic Bomb and the End of the War in the Pacific (1961), discussed the complex problems involved in the Truman administration's decision to use the atomic bomb. His fourth volume, Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference (1960), won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1961.
All of the volumes, including the second and third volumes, The China Tangle: The American Effort in China from Pearl Harbor to the Marshall Mission (1953), and Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin: The War They Waged and the Peace They Sought (1957), were praised for meticulous scholarship.
Despite his closeness to the events, Feis wrote objectively and analytically, often using State and War Department documents not yet examined by other scholars. As participant historian, he understood the limits of those documents.
His experience told him when they distorted or concealed the truth, and suggested when he should find new sources and conduct new interviews.
His close involvement with the people and events about which he wrote, they said, "shackled" him to an "establishment line. " One English critic described his 1960 prize-winning study of the Potsdam Conference as "a State Department brief, translated into terms of historical scholarship. "
But the dominant view was that while Feis's participation in events animated his narrative, he wrote objective history characterized by reasonably dispassionate analysis. As an insider with access to government documents closed to other scholars, he had an unusual advantage, a fact of which he was well aware.
Perhaps because of this, he devoted much time during the 1960's trying to persuade government officials that they could open government documents to research scholars much sooner than was customary without jeopardizing the national security. He wrote an article for the New York Times, for example, defending Daniel Ellsberg's release of the Pentagon Papers, the top-secret study of the Vietnam War ordered in 1967 by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
After leaving government service in 1947, Feis became a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, where he worked intermittently over the next decade. He returned to the Department of State in 1950 to serve for a year on its policy planning staff.
In 1951 he accepted an appointment as visiting professor of history at Harvard and over the next decade held several such appointments at other institutions, including Columbia University.
He spent his last years at his farm in York, Maine, but usually wintered in Antigua, where his daughter lived, or in Florida.
He died in Winter Park, Florida.
( This is a probing narrative of the history which came t...)
(A scholarly examination of the diplomatic prelude to the ...)
(Hc with dj,exlibrary,very good interior text,Pulitzer pri...)
( "The will to write this book came from a desire to find...)
(The Settlement of Wage Disputes is presented here in a hi...)
(Between War and Peace - The Potsdam Conference by Herbert...)
( This book discusses the decision to use the atomic bomb...)
(A history of Israel.)
( Contents: Foreword. Part One: From Pearl Harbor to the ...)
(In this book, Mr. Feis depicts the time of triumph, then ...)
(Feis, Herbert)
(hardcover)
A perceptive analyst, he was able to cut through a welter of conflicting points of view and contradictory information to expose the essence of the matter. Feis was not without his critics. Some charged that as a "court historian" he could not write objectively about the government policies and actions that he himself had helped to formulate.
Feis was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton.
This tall, slim man, his convivial face topped by a cascade of tousled snow-white hair, was a familiar figure on the campuses of American universities during the 1960's, where he was a popular lecturer and recipient of many awards and honorary degrees.
Quotes from others about the person
Feis's particular gift as a historian, said one critic, was his "careful and wide-ranging research" and his "lucid skill in disentangling highly confused situations. "
On March 25 of the following year he married Ruth Stanley-Brown, a great-granddaughter of President James Garfield. From 1931 to 1947 Feis lived in Washington, D. C. , with his wife and only child.