Alfred Eckhard Zimmern

Sir Alfred Eckhard Zimmern (Surbiton, Surrey, UK 1879-Hartford, Connecticut, USA 1957) was a British classical scholar and historian, and political scientist writing on international relations.

His father was a German Jew; he was brought up a Christian, and was later an active participant in the World Council of Churches. He was educated at Winchester College, and read classics at New College, Oxford. At Berlin University, he came under the influence of Wilamowitz and Meyer.

He was one of the first, in his book "The Third British Empire", to use the expression "British Commonwealth" for the British Empire [Discussed in J. D. B. Miller, "The Commonwealth and World Order: The Zimmern Vision and After" (1979),. Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 8: p. 162.] He is also credited with the phrase "welfare state" [ [http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/encyclopedia/article_show/welfare/m0028820.html welfare state ] ] [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=PKq5AJJFl0EC&pg=PA59&lpg=PA59&dq=zimmern+utopian&source=web&ots=bVzoPT0lDt&sig=3bj0NI3mr1gLNcyR-kzrZ1AYZSc Book extract] ] [Kathleen Woodroofe, "The Making of the Welfare State in England: A Summary of Its Origin and Development", Journal of Social History, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Summer, 1968), pp. 303-324.] , made popular a few years later by William Temple ["Oxford English Dictionary", from 1941.] .

Academic career

He was Lecturer in Ancient History, New College, Oxford (1903) and Fellow and tutor, New College (1904-09). Subsequently he was staff inspector, Board of Education (1912-15) and a member, Political Intelligence Department, Foreign Office (1918-19).

He was then Wilson Professor of International Politics, University College of Wales (1919-21); having left Aberystwyth, he taught at Cornell University in 1922 and 1923. [ [http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/cre8/cudb/facultystaff.html Cornell University Information Database ] ] [ [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,716587,00.html "Time" magazine comments] .] .

He was professor of International Relations, Oxford University (1930-44); co-founder, Royal Institute of International Affairs (1919); London Round Table Group (1913-1920s).

Internationalism

He has been classified as a utopian and idealist thinker on international relations [" In addition to Dickinson, the list of contributors to this utopian literature included Nicholas Murray Butler, James T. Shotwell, Alfred Zimmern, Norman Angell, and Gilbert Murray." [http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:QDTbhaZH9JgJ:www.u.arizona.edu/~volgy/dougherty.doc+Zimmern+utopian&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=13&gl=uk] ] ["Idealism (or ‘utopianism’) and power (or ‘realism’) are often portrayed as mutually exclusive and contradictory philosophies or attitudes to global affairs. [...] When the intellectual roots of the leaders of Chatham House (Lionel Curtis, Philip Kerr, Arnold Toynbee, Alfred Zimmern) and the Council on Foreign Relations (Hamilton Fish Armstrong, Whitney Hart Shepardson, Russell Cornell Leffingwell) are examined, it is clear that each category of their thought may be interpreted as a combination of idealism and power." [http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:o2PkqqLl-GoJ:intl-ire.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/16/1/53.pdf+%22Alfred+Zimmern%22+Cornell&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=21&gl=uk] ] . He is cited often, in this perspective, in E. H. Carr's "The Twenty Years' Crisis" (1939); Carr and Zimmern are characterised [2001 edition of the "Crisis", introduction by Michael Cox, note p. xciii.] as "at opposite ends of the theoretical and political spectrum".

He contributed to the founding of both the League of Nations Society, and UNESCO [ [http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=30477&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html Richard Toye - | UNESCO.ORG ] ] . He joined the Labour Party in 1924, contesting the constituency of David Lloyd George in that year. He was Deputy Director of the Institute for Intellectual Co-operation, in Paris, in the mid-1920s [ [http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001017/101722E.pdf PDF] , p. 22.] ; after tension with the Director, the French historian Julien Lachaire, both left [Duncan Wilson, "Gilbert Murray", p. 357.] . He was nominated in 1947 for the Nobel Peace Prize [ [http://nobelprize.org/nomination/peace/nomination.php?action=show&showid=2699 Nomination database ] ] , in connection with his UNESCO work.

Works

*"Nationality and Government" (1918)
*"Europe in Convalescence" (1922) [http://www.archive.org/details/europeinconvales00zimmuoft online text]
*"America and Europe"
*"Prospects of Democracy & Other Essays"
*"The Greek Commonwealth" Politics and Economics in Fifth Century Athens", 1911; 5th ed. 1931, Oxford, reprint 1977
*"The Economic Weapon Against Germany", London: Allen & Unwin, 1918
*"The Third British Empire" (1926; 3.ed. 1934), London: Oxford U.P.
*"The League of Nations and the Rule of Law", 1918-1935

Further reading

*Jeanne Morefield (2004), "Covenants Without Swords: Idealist Liberalism and the Spirit of Empire", on Zimmern and Gilbert Murray

Notes

External links

* [http://www.aber.ac.uk/interpol/history/history_2.html Biography]
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* [http://books.google.com/books?id=NFo4gWhx1hEC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=%22alfred+zimmern%22+labour+party&source=web&ots=zxgcpzIL2d&sig=Q__mhzRttamVTMHMBYULTic2O6Q Book extract]
*de icon [http://rzv039.rz.tu-bs.de/isw/sandra/lexikon/cmsimpleplus/?U-Z:Zimmern%2C_Alfred Biographical page]