George Louis Beer

Who was George Louis Beer?

George Louis Beer was a renowned American historian of the "Imperial school".

Born in Staten Island, New York, he achieved success in the tobacco business. He studied at Columbia University and lectured on European History there from 1893 to 1897. After retiring from business, he wrote three books on the British-American colonial period. In 1913 he was the first Loubat Prize recipient for The Origins of the British Colonial System, 1578-1660, one of those books. His work The English Speaking Peoples, was published in 1917. He stressed the successful workings of the commercial dimensions of the British Empire and was part of the "Imperial School" which emphasized the economic benefits and efficient administration of the Empire. He was American correspondent of the British Round Table Journal.

Beer served as colonial expert to President Wilson's American Commission of Inquiry during World War I and attended the Paris Peace Conference as a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, for which he was chief of the Colonial Division in 1918-1919.