Sidney Bradshaw Fay (13 April 1876 — 29 August 1967) was an American historian, revisionist historian, whose re-examination of the causes of World War I, The Origins of the World War (1928; revised edition 1930) remains a classic study. Fay left Harvard University (Ph.D. 1900)[1] to study at the Sorbonne and the University of Berlin. He taught at Dartmouth College (1902–14) and Smith College (1914–29) and, after the publication of his major book, at both Harvard and Yale University.
Fay's conclusion was that all the European powers shared in the blame, but most of all the system of secret alliances that divided Europe after the Franco-Prussian War into two mutually suspicious camps of group solidarity, Triple Alliance against Triple Entente (Fay's student Allan B. Calhamer, would later develop and publish the game Diplomacy, based on this thesis) but that Austro-Hungary, Serbia and Russia were primarily responsible for the immediate cause of war's outbreak. Other forces besides militarism and nationalism were at work: the economics of imperialism and the newspaper press played roles.[2]
Fay also wrote The Rise of Brandenburg-Prussia to 1786 (1937).
He married (17 August 1904) Sarah Eliza Proctor.[3]
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The Hohenzollern household and administration in the sixteenth century by Sidney Bradshaw Fay. Northampton, Mass.: Dept. of history of Smith college, 1916.
The origins of the World War by Sidney Bradshaw Fay. 2 vols. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1928; 2d ed., rev. New York: Free Press, 1966.
The rise of Brandenburg-Prussia to 1786 by Sidney Bradshaw Fay. New York: H. Holt and Company, c1937; Reprint, Malabar, Fla.: R.E. Krieger Pub. Co., 1981.
A guide to historical literature edited by George Matthew Dutcher, Henry Robinson Shipman, Sidney Bradshaw Fay, Augustus Hunt Shearer, William Henry Allison. New York: The Macmillan company, 1937.
Germany: revised and edited from the work of Bayard Taylor by Sidney B. Fay. "Memorial edition." New York: P. F. Collier & Son Corporation, c1939.