Samuel Flagg Bemis

Samuel Flagg Bemis (1891–1973) was an American historian and diplomat whose scholarship focused on U.S. foreign relations and presidential diplomacy.

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Diplomatic history: The study of relations among states, including diplomacy, treaties, wars, and foreign policy. Bemis helped establish this field as a major approach to United States history.
The Diplomacy of the American Revolution: Samuel Flagg Bemis’s 1935 study of American diplomacy during the Revolutionary War. It exemplifies his account of diplomacy as essential to winning independence.
John Quincy Adams: The sixth president of the United States, a diplomat and secretary of state known for shaping early American foreign policy. Bemis’s biography of Adams won the Pulitzer Prize and made him a central subject of Bemis’s scholarship.
Presidential biography: The historical study of an individual president’s life, decisions, and political career. Bemis’s biography of John Quincy Adams helped establish rigorous archival research as a model for presidential biography.
United States foreign policy: The strategies and actions through which the United States conducts relations with other countries. This was the central subject of much of Bemis’s historical scholarship.
Pinckney's Treaty: The 1795 agreement between the United States and Spain that opened the Mississippi River and secured American use of New Orleans. Bemis analyzed the treaty as a major achievement of early American diplomacy.
Dexter Perkins: An American historian whose scholarship focused on United States foreign relations and the Monroe Doctrine. Perkins was a prominent contemporary in the field Bemis helped shape.
Pulitzer Prize for Biography: An annual American literary award recognizing distinguished biographies and autobiographies. Bemis received the 1940 prize for his biography of John Quincy Adams.
Presidential diplomacy: The conduct of international relations by a president, often through direct negotiation with foreign leaders. Bemis emphasized how presidential authority shaped American diplomacy.
Jay Treaty: The 1794 agreement between the United States and Great Britain that eased post-Revolution tensions and settled some disputes. Bemis treated its negotiation as a defining test of presidential diplomacy.