Background
Albert Shaw was born on July 23, 1857, in Shandon, Butler County, Ohio, United States. He was the son of Doctor Griffin and Susan (Fisher) Shaw.
Fort Dodge, IA 50501
In 1879, Albert Shaw received a Bachelor of Arts from Iowa College and a Master of Arts in 1882.
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
In 1884, Shaw received a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.
Albert Shaw was born on July 23, 1857, in Shandon, Butler County, Ohio, United States. He was the son of Doctor Griffin and Susan (Fisher) Shaw.
In 1879, Albert Shaw received a Bachelor of Arts from Iowa College and a Master of Arts in 1882. In 1884, he received a Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.
In 1890 Albert Shaw accepted the editorship of the American edition of the British publication Review of Reviews. It also contained book reviews and an index to current periodical literature. After the American edition began to appear in 1891, Shaw instituted a number of changes that would distinguish his version from Stead’s, including more political cartoons, illustrations, and original articles. Shaw himself began writing material for “The Progress of the World” column, and by the end of 1892 had managed to separate entirely from Stead and the London edition. Thereafter, from about 1893 to 1910, the Review of Reviews was widely read and admired, circulation climbing to just over 205,000 monthly and advertising growing apace. According to one estimate, each copy passed through the hands of six readers.
Shaw’s success with the Review of Reviews made him a sought-after speaker, and he compiled several of his lectures into book-length volumes. One of these books, Political Problems of American Development appeared in 1907. Shaw used the pages of the Review of Reviews to publicize his work.
Shaw followed the publication of Political Problems of American Development with another volume of his collected lectures, The Outlook for the Average Man, also published in 1907. His next book, however, was completely different. A Cartoon History of Roosevelt’s Career (1910) was published under the auspices of the Review of Reviews and encompassed more than six hundred cartoons and pictures in addition to Shaw’s text, covering the years from 1881 to the early 1900s. The illustrated history remained of interest to Shaw, who published the two-volume Abraham Lincoln in 1929. Shaw’s final book, International Bearings of American Policy (1943) was broader in scope than either of his presidential histories and called for a return to the principles of Shaw’s one-time classmate Woodrow Wilson. Again Shaw wrote with a general readership in mind, and the style of presentation owed much to his experience with Review of Reviews.
In 1883, Shaw secured a position on the Minneapolis Tribune but returned to Johns Hopkins to complete a Doctor of Philosophy His thesis, "Icaria: A Chapter in the History of Communism", was later translated and published in Germany. In the autumn of 1890 Shaw was elected professor of international law and political institutions at Cornell University but resigned the post in 1891 to accept Stead"s invitation to establish an American edition of the Review of Reviews.
Shaw was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society, in October 1893.
In 1893, Albert Shaw married Elisabeth L. Bacon. She died in 1931. He then married Virginia McCall in May 1933. Albert had two children: Albert Shaw Jr. and Roger Shaw.