James Truslow Adams

James Truslow Adams (1878 - 1949) was an American writer and historian.

Adams was born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 18, 1878. He took his bachelor's degree from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn in 1898, and a masters from Yale University in 1900. Thereafter, he entered investment banking, being in the employ of a New York Stock Exchange member firm until 1912.

In 1917, he served with Colonel House on President Wilson's commission to prepare data for the Paris Peace Conference. By 1918, he was a Captain in the Military Intelligence division of the General Staff, US Army. By late 1918, he was selected for the US delegation to the Paris Peace Conference.

It is not clear how Adams supported himself after the war except by writing.

During his life he was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters serving as both chancellor and treasurer of that organization. He was also a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Massachusetts Historical Society, American Antiquarian Society, American Historical Association, and the American Philosophical Society. Among British societies he was honored as a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

It is widely believed that this man was the first to use the term "American Dream" by using it in his book The Epic of America.

Adams lived in Southport, CT, and died May 18, 1949

Bibliography

• The Founding of New England (1921) Pulitzer Prize for History
• Revolutionary New England (1923)
• New England in the Republic (1926)
• Provincial Society (1690-1763) (1927)
• The Adams Family (1930)
• The Epic of America (1930)
• The March of Democracy (2 vols. 1932-1933)
• Henry Adams (1933)

He wrote 21 monographs between 1916 and 1945. He was also editor in chief of the Dictionary of American History, The Atlas of American History, and other volumes.

Sources

Who's Who on the Web, s.v. "Adams, James Truslow" (n.p.: Marquis Who's Who, 2005)