Dodd, William Edward (1869-1940), a noted American historian, served as United States ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937. As ambassador, he protested Adolf Hitler’s policies, but the U.S. Department of State recalled him from Germany. Dodd wrote the widely read Ambassador Dodd’s Diary (1941) and made lecture tours in the United States criticizing Nazi Germany. His historical works include Jefferson Davis (1907), Statesmen of the Old South (1911), Expansion and Conflict (1915), and Woodrow Wilson and His Work (1920).
Dodd was born on Oct. 21, 1869, in Clayton, North Carolina. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Leipzig, Germany. He was a professor of history at Randolph-Macon College and at the University of Chicago. He died on Feb. 9, 1940.
