Thomas A. Bailey

Thomas Andrew Bailey (December 14, 1902 – July 26, 1983) was an American historian based at Stanford University, who specialised in diplomatic history. His best-known work may be The American Pageant.

Quotes

• The teacher asked us to write an essay based on an artist's visual version of the cold and other hardships endured by Washington's men at Valley Forge. I dashed off a page or so of commentary, which brought from the teacher public commendation for my historical empathy and perception. This juvenile effort may have influenced my instructor when he gave me a grade on my report card of 101 percent in history. I thought then, and still think, that no pupil is worth 101 percent in history.
  • The American Pageant Revisited, p. 9

• Vietnam is the dead albatross around Johnson's neck that may pull him down.
  • As quoted in The New York Times (November 6, 1966)

• The two-thirds rule [of the Senate], which can be changed only by constitutional amendment, will no doubt continue for a long time to come. Like monogamy, it is not completely satisfactory, but, like monogamy, it has won general if somewhat grudging acquiescence.
  • A Diplomatic History of the American People, 7th ed., p. 17

• Too many so-called historians are really 'hysterians'; their thinking is more visceral than cerebral. When their duties as citizens clash with their responsibilities as scholars, Clio frequently takes a back seat.
  • Essays Diplomatic and Undiplomatic of Thomas A. Bailey (1969), p. 10

• Too many historical writers are the votaries of cults, which, by definition are dedicated to whitewashing warts and hanging halos.
  • Essays Diplomatic and Undiplomatic of Thomas A. Bailey (1969), p. 15