Randolph Bourne

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Person.png Randolph Bourne   Amazon SpartacusRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
(author, pacifist)
Randolph Bourne.jpg
BornMay 30, 1886
Bloomfield, New Jersey, USA
DiedDecember 22, 1918 (Age 32)
Alma materColombia University
US writer best known for the phrase "war is the health of the state", that laments the success of governments in arrogating authority and resources during conflicts.

Randolph Silliman Bourne was an US progressive writer and intellectual.

Life and work

Bourne was badly disfigured and a hunchback since birth. At age 23, he won a scholarship to study at Columbia University, from which he graduated in 1912 with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master's degree in 1913. He was a journalist and editor of the Columbia Monthly, and he was also a contributor to the weekly The New Republic since it was first launched in 1914, but after America entered the war, the magazine found his pacifist views incompatible. From 1913 to 1914, he studied in Europe on a Columbia Fellowship.[1]

He is considered to be a spokesman for the young radicals living during World War I. His articles appeared in journals including The Seven Arts and The New Republic. Bourne is best known for his essays, especially his unfinished work "The State," discovered after he died. From this essay, which was published posthumously and included in Untimely Papers,[2] comes the phrase "war is the health of the state" that laments the success of governments in arrogating authority and resources during conflicts.


 

A Quote by Randolph Bourne

PageQuoteSource
War“War is the health of the state”Unfinished manuscript
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References