Charles A. Beard

Charles Austin Beard (November 27, 1874 - September 1, 1948) was an American historian, author with James Harvey Robinson of The Development of Modern Europe (1907). Knightstown, Indiana, exemplified a more modern sensibility in writing academic history, and tied economics to politics and intellectual life in works like The Economic Origins of Jeffersonian Democracy.

References

• Bacevich, Andrew J. American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2002. By way of introduction to his main topic, Bacevich briefly recounts Beard's career, and argues that while Beard might have been wrong about a single, albeit major, issue (the need to oppose Adolf Hitler), he correctly assessed how American economic interests drive foreign policy.
• Cott, Nancy. Online article from The Reader's Companion to American History