Background

James Chace was born on the 16th of October, 1931 in Fall River, Massachusetts, United States; the son of Hollister Remington and Harriet Mildred Chace. Chace's family, of the New England aristocracy, lost nearly everything during the Great Depression after the collapse of the Fall River cotton-mill economy.

Education

James Chace studied French and Italian literature at Harvard University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Classics in 1953. Later he went to Paris as a young aesthete to study Delacroix and Baudelaire, the relationship between art and literature, but instead found himself forced to discover the street drama of politics in the backwash of power in postwar Europe. He graduated from the Institute of Political Studies in 1954.

James got Rotary International fellowship in 1954 and Guggenheim fellowship in 1985.

Career

James Chace started his career as an Army translator from 1955 to 1956, which involved the translation of French newspapers for the Central Intelligence Agency. After his return to the United States he worked as an assistant editor at Esquire, New York City, New York in 1957-58.

Later he was a managing editor at East Europe from 1958 to 1964. He also served as the managing editor of the foreign policy journal Interplay in 1964-1969 and Foreign Affairs in 1970-83. He also was a visiting lecturer at Yale University from 1973 to 1979, Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in 1974-77 and Columbia University in 1980.

James was a member of the editorial board at New York Times Book Review, New York in 1983-87. He served as a senior associate at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington from 1987 to 1988. After he spent a year as a senior associate for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace he was appointed director of the Program on International Affairs and the Media at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in 1988.

James became a professor of government and public law and administration at Bard College in 1990. He became editor of the World Policy Journal in 1993, where he served for 7 years. At the time of his death he held the Paul W. Williams Professor of Government and Public Law chair at Bard College.

As an author, Chace published biographies, political analyses, the memoir “What We Had” in 1990, and even a novel, “The Rules of the Game” in 1960. Among his nonfiction works are “A World Elsewhere: The New American Foreign Policy” that was written in 1973, “Endless War: How We Got Involved in Central America and What Can Be Done” in 1984, the critically acclaimed biography “Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World” in 1998, and his last book “Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, and Debs—The Election That Changed the Country” in 2004.

Achievements

• James Chace was published in numerous periodicals such as Booklist, Business Week, Christian Century, Commentary, Commonweal, Contemporary Review, Library Journal, Los Angeles Times Book Review, Washington Monthly, Washington Post Book World, New York Times Book Review.

Works

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  • 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs - The Election that Changed the Country

    (Beginning with former president Theodore Roosevelt’s retu...)

    2004

• book

  • What We Had: A Memoir

    (In an affectionate memoir of growing up amid genteel prov...)

    1990
  • America Invulnerable: The Quest for Absolute Security from 1812 to Star Wars

    (Contends that the government's latest proposal, Star Wars...)

    1988
  • Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World

    (A definitive biography describes the personal and politic...)

    1998
  • Solvency: The Price of Survival 1980
  • Endless War: How We Got Involved in Central America and What Can Be Done 1984
  • A world elsewhere: The new American foreign policy 1973
  • Atlantis Lost: U.S.-European Relations after the Cold War 1976

Membership

James Chace was a member of the International Institute of Strategic Studies, Council of Foreign Relations, PEN, German-American Council, Phi Beta Kappa, Century Association, member of committees on fellows and programs, Lehrman Institute in 1972-86, member of the board of directors, French-American Foundation, beginning in 1975.

• Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History , United States

  1972 - 1986

Interests

• Sailing

Connections

James Chace had two wives, Jean Valentine, with whom he divorced in 1968 and Susan Denvir Chace. He had three children, Sarah and Rebecca from the first marriage and Zoe from the second one. James also had two granddaughters, Rebecca and Pesha.

James Chace was a close friend of historian David Fromkin and military historian and author Caleb Carr.

Father:

Hollister Remington Chace

Mother:

Harriet Mildred (Clarke) Chace

child:

Sarah Chace

child:

Rebecca Chace

child:

Zoe Chace

ex-wife:

Jean Valentine

Wife:

Susan Denvir Chace

Friend:

David Fromkin

David Fromkin is a former American lawyer who has written books on government, politics, and history. He has been professor of international relations, history and law at Boston University since 1994.

Friend:

Caleb Carr

Caleb Carr is a military historian and novelist who has written thrillers set in the past and future.