author
Ephraim Douglass Adams
1865–1930
A Stanford historian with a gift for making big ideas readable, he became known for work on the American Civil War and on the tangled relationship between Britain and the United States. His books bring politics, diplomacy, and national ideals into the same lively frame.
1 Audiobook
Great Britain and the American Civil War
by Ephraim Douglass Adams
About the author
Born in Decorah, Iowa, in 1865, he studied at the University of Michigan, graduating in 1887 and earning a Ph.D. in 1890. He went on to a long career at Stanford University, where he taught history, later led the department, and became known as an expert on the Civil War era and British-American relations.
Adams wrote on subjects that connected ideas with public life, including The Power of Ideals in American History and Great Britain and the American Civil War. Archival records at Stanford also show his role in university life beyond the classroom, including his connection to the early Hoover War Library.
He died in Stanford, California, in 1930. Even from the brief record that survives online, he comes across as a scholar deeply interested in how nations explain themselves, how diplomacy shapes events, and how history can be taught in a clear, memorable way.