Gordon A . Craig Gordon Alexander Craig ( November 13 , 1913 – October 30 , 2005 ) was a Scottish - American historian of German history and of diplomatic history . Early life . Craig was born in Glasgow . In 1925 he emigrated with his family to Toronto , Canada , and then to Jersey City , New Jersey . Initially interested in studying the law , he switched to history after hearing the historian Walter " Buzzer " Hall lecture at Princeton University . In 1935 , Craig visited and lived for several months in Germany , to research a thesis he was writing on the downfall of the Weimar Republic . This trip marked the beginning of lifelong interest with all things German . Craig did not enjoy the atmosphere of Nazi Germany , and throughout his life , he sought to find the answer to the question of how a people who , in his opinion , had made a disproportionately large contribution to Western civilization , allowed themselves to become entangled in what Craig saw as the corrupting embrace of Nazism . Of Adolf Hitler , Craig once wrote , Adolf Hitler was " sui generis " , a force without a real historical past . . . dedicated to the acquisition of power for his own gratification and to the destruction of a people whose existence was an offense to him and whose annihilation would be his crowning triumph . Both the grandiose barbarism of his political vision and the moral emptiness of his character make it impossible to compare him in any meaningful way with any other German leader . He stands alone . Education and work . Craig graduated in history from Princeton University , was a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College , Oxford , from 1936 to 1938 , and served in the U . S . Marine Corps as a captain and in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II . In 1941 , he co - edited with Edward Mead Earle and Felix Gilbert , on behalf of the American War Department , the book " Makers of Modern Strategy : Military Thought From Machiavelli to Hitler " , which was intended to serve as a guide to strategic thinking for military leaders during the war . After 1945 , Craig worked as a consultant to the U . S . Arms Control and Disarmament Agency , the State Department , the U . S . Air Force Academy and the Historical Division of the U . S . Marine Corps . He was a professor at Princeton University from 1950 – 61 and at Stanford University from 1961 - 79 . In 1956 - 1957 , he taught at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences . In addition , he often held visiting professorships at the Free University of Berlin ; in 1967 , Craig was the only professor there to sign a petition asking for an investigation into charges of police brutality towards protesting students . Craig was chair of the history department at Stanford in 1972 - 1975 and 1978 - 1979 . Between 1975 - 1985 , he served as the vice - president of the Comité International des Sciences Historiques . In 1979 , he became an emeritus professor and was awarded the title J . E . Wallace Sterling Professor of Humanities . During his time at Stanford , Craig was considered to be a popular and innovative teacher who improved both undergraduate and graduate teaching , while remaining well liked by the students . After his retirement , he worked as a book reviewer for the " New York Review of Books " . Some of his reviews attracted controversy , most notably in April 1996 , when he praised Daniel Goldhagen ' s book " Hitler ' s Willing Executioners " and later in September of the same year when he argued that David Irving ' s work was valuable because of what Craig saw as Irving ' s devil ' s advocate role . Craig argued that Irving was usually wrong , but that by promoting what Craig saw as a twisted and wrongheaded view of history with a great deal of élan , Irving forced other historians to fruitfully examine their beliefs about what is known about the Third Reich . Craig was formerly President of the American Historical Association . In 1953 , together with his friend Felix Gilbert , he edited a prosopography of inter - war diplomats entitled " The Diplomats " , an important source for diplomatic history in the interwar period . He followed this book with studies on the Prussian Army , the Battle of Königgrätz and many aspects of European and German history . Craig was particularly noted for his contribution to the Oxford History of Modern Europe series entitled " Germany , 1866 - 1945 " and its companion volume , " The Germans " . The latter was a wide - ranging cultural history that explored aspects of being German , such as attitudes towards German - Jewish relations , money , students , women , and democracy , amongst others . The book was a best - seller in both the United States and Germany and Craig was awarded the Pour le Mérite medal for this book . Increasingly interested in cultural history in his later years , Craig subsequently wrote studies of several German writers , most notably Theodor Fontane . During this time , he also emerged as a celebrity in the German - speaking world , frequently appearing as a guest on German television talk shows . By his later years , Craig was widely regarded as the doyen of American historians of Germany , and his opinions carried much weight . Craig died in 2005 , and was survived by his widow Phyllis , four children and eight grandchildren . Personal viewpoint . Craig saw modern German history as a struggle between the positive , as exemplified by the values of humanist intellectuals , and negative forces in German life , as exemplified by Nazism . In a broader sense , he viewed this conflict as between enlightened spirit and authoritarian power . He was highly critical of those who saw Nazism as the culmination of German national character , while at the same time criticizing those who argued that Nazi Germany was just a " Betriebsunfall " ( industrial accident ) of history . Craig felt that the particular way Otto von Bismarck created the German Empire in 1871 was a tragedy , as it entrenched the forces of authoritarianism in German life . Similarly , Craig viewed the autonomous role of the German Army as a “ State - within - the - State ” as highly adverse to the development of democracy . Craig saw history not as a social science , but rather as a “ human discipline ” . He censured those historians who saw their work as social science and frequently called for historians to return to the methods of former times by seeking to “ interconnect ” history and literature . Craig was noted for his sparse , highly elegant literary style , together with a tendency to keep an ironic distance from his subjects . He was very fond of German literature , and praised the novels of Theodor Fontane as the best portrayal of 19th century Germany , which he considered superior to many works produced by historians . Craig ’ s last project , incomplete at the time of his death , concerned a survey of novels set in Berlin ( which was Craig ’ s favorite city ) in the 20th century .