Butler, great-grandson ofMorgan John Rhys,[6] was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Mary Butler and manufacturing worker Henry Butler. He enrolled inColumbia College (later Columbia University) and joined thePeithologian Society. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1882, his master's degree in 1883, and his doctorate in 1884. Butler's academic and other achievements ledTheodore Roosevelt to call him "Nicholas Miraculous". In 1885, Butler studied in Paris and Berlin and became a lifelong friend of future Secretary of StateElihu Root. Through Root he also met Roosevelt andWilliam Howard Taft. In the fall of 1885, Butler joined the staff of Columbia's philosophy department.
In 1901, Butler became acting president of Columbia University and, in 1902, formally became president. Among the many dignitaries in attendance at his investiture was PresidentRoosevelt. Butler was president of Columbia for 43 years, the longest tenure in the university's history, retiring in 1945. As president, Butler carried out a major expansion of the campus, adding many new buildings, schools, and departments. These additions includedColumbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, the first academic medical center in the world.
In 1919, Butler amended the admissions process to Columbia in order to limit the number of Jewish students; it became the first American institution of higher learning to establish aquota on the number of Jews admitted. Butler's policy reduced the number of students hailing from New York City from 54% to 23% stemming from what was called at the time "the invasion of the Jewish student".[10][11] This is one of the reasons why Butler has been called an anti-semite.[12]
In September 1931, Butler told the freshman class at Columbia that totalitarian systems produced "men of far greater intelligence, far stronger character, and far more courage than the system of elections."[13]: 204
In 1941, thePulitzer Prize fiction jury selectedErnest Hemingway'sFor Whom the Bell Tolls. The Pulitzer Board initially agreed with that judgment, but Butler,ex officio head of the Pulitzer board, found the novel offensive and persuaded the board to reverse its determination, so that no novel received the prize that year.[15] Hemingway didn't receive his Pulitzer (forThe Old Man and the Sea) until 1952, after Butler's death.
During his lifetime, Columbia named its philosophy library for him; after he died, its main academic library, previously known as South Hall, was rechristenedButler Library. A faculty apartment building on 119th Street andMorningside Drive was also renamed in Butler's honor, as was a major prize in philosophy.
Butler believed thatProhibition was a mistake, with negative effects on the country. He was active in the successful effort forRepeal Prohibition in 1933.[17]
In June 1936, Butler traveled to the Carnegie Endowment Peace Conference in London where, at the meeting, fundamental problems of money and finance were explored.[19]
According to historianStephen H. Norwood, Butler failed to "grasp the nature and implications of Nazism... influenced both by his antisemitism, privately expressed, and his economic conservatism and hostility to trade unionism."[20] Butler was a longtime admirer ofBenito Mussolini. He compared the Italian Fascist leader toOliver Cromwell[21] and, in the 1920s, he noted "the stupendous improvement whichFascism has brought".[22]
In November 1933, months after theNazi book burnings began, he welcomedHans Luther, the German ambassador to the United States, to Columbia and refused to appear with a notable German dissident when the latter visited the university. In 1936, Butler permanently expelled student Robert Burke—the class president of the class of 1938—for leading an anti-Nazi protest on campus.[23] Butler was criticized for his "remarkable silence" and complicity towardsHitler's regime until the late 1930s.[12][24] Butler only unambiguously condemned Nazi Germany afterKristallnacht.[25]
Butler became head of international education and communication, founded the European branch of the Endowment headquartered in Paris, and was President of the Endowment from 1925 to 1945. For his work in this field, he received theNobel Peace Prize for 1931 (shared withJane Addams) "[For his promotion] of theKellogg-Briand pact" and for his work as the "leader of the more establishment-oriented part of the American peace movement".
Butler married Susanna Edwards Schuyler (1863–1903) in 1887 and had one daughter from that marriage. Susanna was the daughter ofJacob Rutsen Schuyler (1816–1887) and Susannah Haigh Edwards (born 1830). His wife died in 1903 and he married again in 1907 to Kate La Montagne, granddaughter of New York property developerThomas E. Davis.[34]
In 1940, Butler completed his autobiography with the publication of the second volume ofAcross the Busy Years.[35]
Butler was not universally liked. In 1939, a former student of Butler,Rolfe Humphries, published in the pages ofPoetry an effort titled "Draft Ode for a Phi Beta Kappa Occasion" that followed a classical format of unrhymedblank verse iniambic pentameter with one classical reference per line. The first letters of each line of the resultingacrostic spelled out the message: "Nicholas Murray Butler is a horses ass". Upon discovering the "hidden" message, the irate editors ran a formal apology.[37]Randolph Bourne lampooned Butler as "Alexander Macintosh Butcher" in "One of our Conquerors", a 1915 essay he published inThe New Republic.[38]
Butler wrote and spoke voluminously on all manner of subjects ranging from education toworld peace. Although marked by erudition and great learning, his work tended toward the portentous and overblown. InThe American Mercury, the criticDorothy Dunbar Bromley referred to Butler's pronouncements as "those interminable miasmas of guff".[39]
^"Morgan J. Rhees papers, 1794–1968".Columbia University Libraries.Archived from the original on November 27, 2020. RetrievedMay 22, 2019.Abolitionist, Welsh republican radical, publisher, Baptist minister, pioneer and adventurer Morgan J. Rhees… was the great grandfather of Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University.
^Stephen H. Norwood, "The Expulsion of Robert Burke: Suppressing Campus Anti-Nazi Protest in the 1930s".Journal for the Study of Antisemitism 4:1 (2012): 89-114.
^"Nicholas Murray Butler".C250 (Columbia University celebration 250 years after its founding in 1754; c250.columbia.edu).
^"American Academy of Arts and Letters".World Almanac and Encyclopedia 1919. New York: The Press Publishing Co. (The New York World). January 5, 2024. p. 216.
Alogdelis, Joanna. "A Critical Evaluation of Selected Educational Speeches of Nicholas Murray Butler" (PhD dissertation, University of Iowa; ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1949. 10991965).
Hewlett, Charles F. (1987). "John Dewey and Nicholas Murray Butler: Contrasting Conceptions of Peace Education in the Twenties".Educational Theory.37 (4):445–461.doi:10.1111/j.1741-5446.1987.00445.x.ISSN0013-2004.
Akhund, Nadine; Tison, Stéphane, eds. (2018).En guerre pour la paix. Correspondance Paul d'Estournelles de Constant et Nicholas Murray Butler (1914–1919) [At war for peace. Correspondence between Paul d'Estournelles de Constant and Nicholas Murray Butler (1914–1919)] (in French). Translated by Akhund, Nadine. Paris: Alma éditeur.ISBN978-2-362792-63-2.OCLC1101112844.
