Theodore H. Von Laue

His view about world history, which he presented in a paper at the conference of the New England Regional World History Association in Bentley College, Waltham, MA, USA, on April 23, 1994, can be summarized in following points:

One of his first works has been a biographical study about Leopold von Ranke showing that his "scientific objectivity" was much influenced by the romantics in the 19th century. He then switched to studies of German and especially Russian history, which lead him to consider the influences as the Western Civilization on countries of a different one. An example for this is his book about Sergei Wittes failure to industrialize Russia, blocked by conservative forces including the last Russian tsar Nicholas II. Better known are the following books, which he wrote about this topic: "Why Lenin? Why Stalin?" published in 1964, expanded by "Why Lenin? Why Stalin? Why Gorbachev?" in 1993., and finally his "The World Revolution of Westernization", published in 1987, which, according to the epitaph, by William H. McNeill, the historian from the University of Chicago, was called a fine and wise book — wise in a way few books are. A recension of his book The Global City in 1969 shows that he expected a global confluence, dominated by the West, with problems lasting beyond the 20th century.

After having studied at the University of Freiburg, Germany, in 1937 he was sent to Princeton by his father Max von Laue, who did not want him to grow up "in a country run by gangsters". He finished his studies with a PhD about the social legislation of Otto von Bismarck. He then taught at Swarthmore College, the University of California, Riverside, and the Washington University in St. Louis, when he finally became professor of European History at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was there from 1970 until his retirement in 1982. In the epitaph of the Clark University he is described as modest, humorous. Not many knew that he was a Quaker, co-initiated the anti-war-movement at Washington University and joined Martin Luther King Jr. in the Selma to Montgomery marches.

Theodore H. Von Laue (June 22, 1916 in Frankfurt, Germany - January 22, 2000 in Worcester, Massachusetts) was an American historian and professor emeritus of history at Clark University. He was a winner of Guggenheim Fellowship (1962 and 1974).