Julius William Pratt was a United States historian who specialized in foreign relations and imperialism.
Background
Pratt was the son of William McLain Pratt and Sophie Rand. Following the death of his father, Julius, William and Sophie moved from Connecticut to Blue Earth County, Minnesota, near Mankato along the Minnesota River Valley, in 1870, to work in the lumber industry.
Career
Noted for his studies of the origins of the War of 1812 and the war with Spain in 1898, he also wrote a two-volume biography of Cordell Hull. He was the historian who rediscovered John L. O"Sullivan and his role in originating the idea of Manifest Destiny. The frontier and colonial nature of Pratt"s family background is noteworthy.
In 1888, Julius West. was born.
In 1900 the family moved to the Blue Ridge region of North Carolina. Pratt"s older sister Alice Day acquired her own reputation as a writer, teacher, and homesteader in Oregon.
He attended Davidson College and graduated in 1908. Pratt would go on to the University of Chicago for graduate work, where he studied under the direction of William East. Dodd.
He received his Doctor of Philosophy in 1924.
Pratt taught English at the United States Naval Academy from 1919 to 1924, before moving to Rutgers University for two years. In 1926 he left Rutgers for the University of Buffalo, where he was the inaugural Emanuel Boasberg Professor of History. Pratt delivered the Albert Shaw Lectures on Diplomatic History for 1936, later published as The Expansionists of 1898: The Acquisition of Hawaii and the Spanish Islands.
In the period 1938-1939, Pratt was one of the "Committee of Ten on Reorganization and Policy" charged by the American Historical Association with reviewing the organization and recommending improvements.
Pratt remained at Buffalo for the remainder of his entire career. The following year he taught as a visiting professor at Hobart and William Smith.
He died in 1983.