imported>Srich32977: Cleaned up using AutoEd

2025-05-24T03:30:56Z

Cleaned up using AutoEd

New page

{{short description|American historian (1931–2004)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}

[[Image:James Chace.jpg|thumb]]
'''James Clarke Chace''' (October 16, 1931 – October 8, 2004) was an American historian, writing on American [[diplomacy]] and [[Public administration|statecraft]]. His books include the critically acclaimed ''Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created the American World'' (1998), the definitive biography of former [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]] [[Dean Acheson]]. In a debate during the [[Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2000|2000 presidential primary]], [[George W. Bush]] referred to Chace's ''Acheson'' as one of the books he was reading at the time.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Salon News {{!}} Take-home test|url=https://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/12/13/acheson/index.html|date=February 24, 2002|access-date=May 12, 2020|archive-date=February 24, 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020224034053/https://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/12/13/acheson/index.html|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Bruni|first=Frank|date=September 29, 2000|title=The 2000 Campaign:The Debates; The Evolution of Bush the Debater|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/29/us/the-2000-campaign-the-debates-the-evolution-of-bush-the-debater.html|access-date=May 12, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

His writings, known for elegant and even literary prose, often influenced American thought in policymaking—his coining of the phrase "the indispensable nation" with [[Sidney Blumenthal]]<ref name=Blumenthal>{{cite web|last1=Blumenthal|first1=Sidney|title=James Chace, 1931–2004|url=https://prospect.org/article/james-chace-1931-2004|website=The American Prospect|accessdate=April 21, 2015}}</ref> to describe America was widely used when Secretary of State [[Madeleine Albright]] began including it in her speeches.

Chace was born and raised in [[Fall River, Massachusetts]]. His family, of the [[New England]] aristocracy, lost nearly everything during the [[Great Depression]] after the collapse of the Fall River cotton-mill economy. This experience he later described in his 1990 memoir ''What We Had''.

Chace graduated from [[Harvard University]] with a degree in [[Classics]]. He went to France in 1954 to conduct graduate-study research on painter [[Eugène Delacroix]] and writer [[Charles Baudelaire]], but soon found his interest drawn to the current intellectual arena of literature and politics, which led to an intense interest in French political writers including [[Albert Camus]] and [[Jean-Paul Sartre]]. He returned to France later the same year as a soldier and in 1955 and 1956 worked as an [[United States Army|Army]] translator, which involved the translation of French newspapers for the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]. While in France he wrote a novel and was witness to the impact of that nation's withdrawal from [[Vietnam]] and its problems with a rebellion in colonialized [[Algeria]].

After his return to the United States his interest in foreign policy grew as he served as managing editor for ''East Europe'', a political review of [[Soviet bloc]] affairs, from 1959 to 1969, during which time he wrote his book ''Conflict in the Middle East'' about the [[Six-Day War]]. He also served as the managing editor of the foreign policy journal ''Interplay'' (1967–1970) and ''[[Foreign Affairs]]'' (1970–1983). He became editor of the ''[[World Policy Journal]]'' in 1993, where he served for 7 years. In 1990, he was appointed Professor of Government at [[Bard College]] in [[Annandale-on-Hudson, New York|Annandale-on-Hudson]], in upstate New York. He later helped found and chair Bard's [[international relations|international affairs]] program, the Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program (BGIA), in New York City. His pieces were frequently printed on newspaper op-ed pages and he contributed to the ''[[New York Times Book Review]]'' in the 1980s and 1990s.

Chace's work focused on American statesmanship, the interplay of American interests with American values, and the use of American power. He believed that any statesman effectively leading a nation will understand that resources are limited — including blood and political will — and that in protecting the interests of the nation those resources cannot be overtaxed. According to fellow writer and good friend [[Mark Danner]], Chace considered the [[Vietnam War]] a classic example of a nation failing to prudently balance interests and resources, and saw the [[Iraq War]] as another example.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Chace |first=James |date=September 12, 2004 |title='The Folly of Empire': Mission Abandoned |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/12/books/review/the-folly-of-empire-mission-abandoned.html |access-date=January 4, 2025 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Chace died from a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] in Paris while doing research for a biography of the [[Marquis de Lafayette]], which would have been his tenth book. At the time of his death, Chace resided in New York City and was survived by former wives [[Jean Valentine]] and Susan Denvir Chace, daughters Sarah, [[Rebecca Chace|Rebecca]], and Zoe. He was a close friend and mentor of military historian and author [[Caleb Carr]] and historian [[David Fromkin]]. He had two grand daughters, Rebecca and Pesha. [[Joan Bingham]] was a long time companion.

==Publications==
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?112990-1/acheson-secretary-state Presentation by Chace on ''Acheson'', September 16, 1998], [[C-SPAN]]| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?183270-1/1912-wilson-roosevelt-taft-debs ''Booknotes'' interview with Chace on ''1912'', August 29, 2004], [[C-SPAN]]| video3 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?182471-1/1912-wilson-roosevelt-taft-debs Presentation by Chace on ''1912'', May 12, 2004], [[C-SPAN]]}}
* ''The Rules of the Game'' (1960 Doubleday) – a novel<ref>{{cite podcast |title=Letters! Actual Letters! |website=[[This American Life]] |date=August 16, 2024 |url=https://www.thisamericanlife.org/838/letters-actual-letters/act-five-3}}</ref>
* ''Conflict in the Middle East'' (1969 H. W. Wilson Company) – causes and consequences of the 1967 Six-Day War
* ''A World Elsewhere: the new American foreign policy'' (1973 Scribner) ({{ISBN|0-684-13225-7}})
* ''Atlantis Lost: United States-European Relation After the Cold War'' (James Chace, co-editor with Earl C. Ravenal) (1976 UP) {{ISBN|0-8147-1361-0}}
* ''Solvency, the Price of Survival: An essay on American foreign policy'' (1981 Random House) {{ISBN|0-394-50754-1}}
* ''Endless War: How We Got Involved in Central America-And What Can Be Done'' (1984 Vintage Books) ({{ISBN|0-394-72779-7}})
* ''America Invulnerable: The Quest for Absolute Security from 1812 to Star Wars'' (1988 Summit) (by James Chace with [[Caleb Carr]]) {{ISBN|0-671-61778-8}}
* ''What We Had: A Memoir'' (1990 Summit Books) {{ISBN|0-671-69478-2}}
* ''The Consequences of the Peace: The New Internationalism and American Foreign Policy'' (1993 Oxford) {{ISBN|0-19-508354-7}}
* ''Acheson: The Secretary Of State Who Created The American World'' (1998 Simon & Schuster)
* ''[[What If? 2 (essays)|What If? 2]]: Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been'' (2001 Putnam) (by [[Robert Cowley]], James Chace and [[John Lukacs]]) {{ISBN|0-399-14795-0}}
* ''1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft and Debs-The Election that Changed the Country'' (2004 Simon & Schuster, Inc.) {{ISBN|0-7432-0394-1}}
* ''Booknotes on American Character: people, politics, and conflict in American history'' (2004 Perseus Press) (contributor) {{ISBN|1-58648-232-7}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* Schudel, Matt. "James Chace, 72; Wrote on Foreign Policy". ''Washington Post'', October 10, 2004, p. C11 (Accessed via [https://www.washingtonpost.com washingtonpost.com] October 19, 2006).
* Weiner, Tim. "James Chace, Foreign Policy Thinker, Is Dead at 72". ''The New York Times'' (Late East Coast edition), October 11, 2004, p. B.7. {{ProQuest|710384891}}

==External links==
* [https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/06/14/specials/nixon-vietnams.html?_r=1&oref=slogin "How America 'Lost the Peace'], James Chace's review of Richard Nixon's ''No More Vietnams'', ''New York Times Book Reviews'', April 7, 1985.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051105025043/http://www.worldpolicy.org/chace3.html "An Empty Hegemony?"], by James Chace, ''World Policy Journal'', Summer 1997.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061116003457/http://dir.salon.com/story/books/int/2004/05/05/progressive/index.html "Americans have not been energized"], James Chace interview by Mark Lytle, ''Salon'', May 5, 2004.
* [http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?name=View+Author&section=root&id=1081 "Wise After All"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927192442/http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?name=View+Author&section=root&id=1081 |date=September 27, 2007 }}, by James Chace, ''The American Prospect Online Edition'', June 7, 2004.
* [http://www.eyeonbooks.com/ibp.php?ISBN=0743203941 Audio interview with James Chace on ''1912''], Bill Thompson's ''Eye on Books'', 2004.
* {{C-SPAN|6940}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20111115123035/http://booknotes.org/Watch/183270-1/James+Chace.aspx 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs – The Election That Changed the Country"] on Booknotes

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chace, James}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:2004 deaths]]
[[Category:Harvard College alumni]]
[[Category:People from Fall River, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Bard College faculty]]
[[Category:20th-century American historians]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:21st-century American historians]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Historians from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]

James Chace - Revision history

imported>Srich32977: Cleaned up using AutoEd