Bernadotte Everly Schmitt was born in Strasburg, Virginia, on May 19, 1886, to Cooper Davis Schmitt (1859-1910) and Rose Evelyn Everly Schmitt (1865-1915). His father, Cooper, was a professor of mathematics and classics at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Schmitt was an accomplished student, attending the Baker-Himel School in Knoxville as well as the University of Tennessee. He received his degree in 1904 and was selected as the first Rhodes Scholar from Tennessee. He attended Merton College, Oxford, from 1905 to 1908. He went on to earn his M.A. from Oxford in 1908 and later earned a PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Schmitt was a diplomatic and European historian, authoring The Coming of War, 1914 (1930) for which he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1931. Schmitt served as professor of Modern European History at the University of Chicago from 1924 to 1946. He was also active in professional historical organizations including serving as president of the American Historical Association and as the first editor of the Journal of Modern History. Schmitt was married to Damaris Kathryn “Babs” Ames (1901-1985). He died on March 22, 1969.