An American historian and author, he is known for works such as The Will of Zeus and The Mask of Jove. He also taught Classics at Rutgers College and served as the editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review.
He served as the president of St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.
He established the Foundation for World Government.
He was born in Suffolk, Virginia. He later married Gladys Josephine Baldwin Barr.
He and Eleanor Roosevelt both supported a petition asking the U.S. Congress to abolish the House Committee on Unamerican Activities.