Claude G. Bowers

Claude Bowers
United States Ambassador to Chile
In office
September 7, 1939 – September 2, 1953
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S. Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded byNorman Armour
Succeeded byWillard L. Beaulac
United States Ambassador to Spain
In office
June 1, 1933 – February 2, 1939
PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt
Preceded byIrwin B. Laughlin
Succeeded byH. Freeman Matthews (Acting); Alexander W. Weddell
Personal details
Born
Claude Gernade Bowers

(1878-11-20)November 20, 1878
Westfield, Indiana, U.S.
DiedJanuary 21, 1958(1958-01-21) (aged 79)
New York City, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
SpouseSybil McCaslin Bowers
ChildrenPatricia Bowers
EducationShortridge High School
Occupation
  • Newspaper writer and editor
  • senatorial secretary
  • ambassador to Spain and Chile
Writing career
LanguageEnglish
PeriodFirst half of twentieth century
GenrePopular history
SubjectAmerican politics
Years active1916–1953
Notable worksThe Party Battles of the Jackson Period (1922)
Jefferson and Hamilton: The Struggle for Democracy in America (1925)
The Tragic Era: The Revolution after Lincoln (1929)

Claude Gernade Bowers (November 20, 1878 – January 21, 1958) was a newspaper columnist and editor, author of best-selling books on American history, Democratic Party politician, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's ambassador to Spain (1933–1939) and Chile (1939–1953).[1] His histories of the Democratic Party in its formative years from the 1790s to the 1830s helped shape the party's self-image as a powerful force against monopoly and privilege. Bowers was a sharp critic of Republicans and their Reconstruction policies for African American voting rights and civil rights.

Bowers was ambassador to Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939). At first he recommended the United States join other nations in a Non-intervention Agreement. When it soon became clear that Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, in violation of the Agreement, were openly helping the Nationalist rebels, he unsuccessfully pressed Washington to aid the government of the Spanish Republic. He left Spain when it became clear, in early 1939, that the rebels, led by the dictator Francisco Franco, had won the war. Later that year, he became U.S. Ambassador to Chile, which had a leftist government more to his liking.

In domestic affairs he considered himself a staunch Jeffersonian, and was increasingly dismayed at the New Deal interventions into the economy, but kept quiet about it.

Three of Bower's books were genuine best-sellers, "but he is little remembered today except by political historians".[2]

  1. ^ Hrenchir, Mary Josephine (January 1993). "Claude G. Bowers and American foreign relations". Etd Collection for University of Nebraska - Lincoln: 1–299. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
  2. ^ Furlong, Patrick J. (August 2001). "A Jeffersonian Admirer at Home and Abroad (review of Peter J. Sehlinger and Holman Hamilton. Spokesman for Democracy: Claude G. Bowers, 1878-1958)". h-Net.