William Edward Dodd (1869-1940) was an American historian, author and diplomat. A liberal Democrat, he served as the United States Ambassador to Germany from 1933 to 1937 during the Nazi era.
Dodd's essay Karl Lamprecht and Kulturgeschichte was published on the magazine Popular Science Monthly in September 1903.
Karl Lamprecht (1856-1915), one of the most important German historians, was the leading exponent of the Kulturgeschichte ("History of culture") and was a strong believer in the superiority of German culture. Shortly before his death he repudiated, with some indignation, the conception of Germany's participation in the First World War as dictated by "warlords".
