Occupation Historian Role Historian Nationality American Education Columbia University | Period 1893 - 1923 Name George Beer | |
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Born July 26, 1872
Staten Island, NY, USA ( 1872-07-26 ) Subject American History, Colonial History Died March 15, 1920, New York City, New York, United States Books British Colonial Policy - 17, The English‑speaking Peoples, The Old Colonial System - 1, The Old Colonial System: 1, The Origins of the British Co | ||
Notable awards Loubat Prize (1913) | ||
George Louis Beer (July 26, 1872 – March 15, 1920) was a renowned American historian of the "Imperial school".
Born in Staten Island, New York, to an affluent family that was prominent in New York's German-Jewish community, Beer's father owned a successful tobacco importing business. He studied at Columbia University, where he received the A.B. degree (1892) and then an A.M. degree in 1893. Beer's master's thesis ("The Commercial Policy of England Toward the American Colonies") was supervised by Professor Herbert Levi Osgood and was immediately published in the Columbia University Studies in History, Economics and Public Law. He taught European History at Columbia from 1893 to 1897 while also working in the tobacco business. After retiring from business in 1903, he devoted his time to extensive research in British archives, and wrote three highly regarded and influential books on the British-American colonial period. In 1913 he was the first Loubat Prize recipient for The Origins of the British Colonial System, 1578-1660, one of those books. His work The English Speaking Peoples, was published in 1917. He stressed the successful workings of the commercial dimensions of the British Empire and was part of the "Imperial School" which emphasized the economic benefits and efficient administration of the Empire. He was American correspondent of the British Round Table Journal.
Beer served as colonial expert to President Wilson's American Commission of Inquiry during World War I and attended the Paris Peace Conference as a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, for which he was chief of the Colonial Division in 1918-1919. He was also a member of the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations, and was appointed director of the Mandatory Section of the League's Secretariat in 1919.
Beer married Edith Hellman on November 11, 1896. She was the niece of one of his early mentors at Columbia, E. R. A. Seligman, who had also married Beer's sister. Beer and his wife had one daughter, and the marriage lasted until Beer's untimely death on March 15, 1920.
The George Louis Beer Prize
Beer left a bequest to establish a prize recognizing outstanding historical writing relating to European international history since 1895. American citizens or permanent residents are eligible, for books published in the year preceding the award. The George Louis Beer Prize has been awarded in most years since 1923.