Stoddard, Lothrop (29 June 1883–01 May 1950), political philosopher and nativist advocate, was born Theodore Lothrop Stoddard in Brookline, Massachusetts, the son of John Lawson Stoddard, a lecturer and writer, and Mary Hammond Brown. Stoddard grew up in Massachusetts. His parents separated in 1888; his mother raised him, but Stoddard’s father sustained a close relationship, including extensive travel both domestic and abroad. Stoddard graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1905; he then studied law at Boston University until his admission to the Massachusetts bar in 1908. That year he traveled extensively in Europe, a trip that greatly impressed him with the burgeoning complexity and difficulties of European politics at the turn of the century. He became convinced of both the imminence of a massive European war and the naiveté of American political leadership. On his return to the United States he enrolled in Harvard, studying political science and earning the Master of Arts in 1910 and the Doctor of Philosophy in 1914....
