The Prehistory of International Studies at Stanford, before 1919

Abstract

ABSTRACT When Herbert Hoover established the Hoover War Library in 1919, he was building on traditions and values that he had absorbed as a student at Stanford University, where he matriculated with the pioneer class in 1891. While international studies, as such, was not yet an established field in those years, Leland Stanford and the historian Andrew D. White (advisor to Stanford on creating the university), were both deeply concerned with issues of war and peace. White, who served terms as ambassador to Imperial Germany and then Imperial Russia, always emphasized the importance of studying primary sources such as contemporary posters, newspapers, and correspondence. The founding university president David Starr Jordan projected a global outlook from the beginning and eventually would become a widely traveled peace activist. Jordan, Ray Lyman Wilbur (the university’s third president), and Herbert Hoover all credit Andrew D. White for inspiring them to study the causes of war, revolution, and peace.