Sidney Bradshaw Fay


Sidney Bradshaw Fay was an American historian, whose examination of the causes of World War I, The Origins of the World War remains a classic study. In this book, which won him the 1928 George Louis Beer Prize of the American Historical Association, Fay claimed that Germany was too readily blamed for the war and that a great deal of the responsibility instead rested with the Allies, especially Russia and Serbia. His stance is supported by several modern scholars, such as Christopher Clark, but it remains controversial.
Fay left Harvard University to study at the Sorbonne and the University of Berlin. He taught at Dartmouth College and Smith College and, after the publication of his major book, at both Harvard and Yale University.
Fay's conclusion was that all the European powers shared in the blame, but he blamed mostly the system of secret alliances that divided Europe after the Franco-Prussian War into two mutually suspicious camps of group solidarity: Triple Alliance against Triple Entente. He considered Austro-Hungary, Serbia and Russia to be primarily responsible for the immediate cause of war's outbreak. Other forces besides militarism and nationalism were at work, as the economics of imperialism and the newspaper press played roles.
Fay also wrote The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia to 1786.
He married Sarah Eliza Proctor.

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