Randolph Silliman Bourne (/bɔːrn/; May 30, 1886 – December 22, 1918) was a progressive writer and intellectual born in Bloomfield, New Jersey, and a graduate of Columbia University.

From this essay, which was published posthumously and included in Untimely Papers,[1] comes the phrase "war is the health of the state" that laments the success of governments in arrogating authority and resources during conflicts.

Bourne's face was deformed at birth by misused forceps and the umbilical cord was coiled round his left ear, leaving it permanently damaged and misshapen.

He was a journalist and editor of the Columbia Monthly, and he was also a contributor to the weekly The New Republic since it was first launched in 1914, but after America entered the war, the magazine found his pacifist views incompatible.

[3] World War I divided American progressives and pitted an anti-war faction—including Bourne and Jane Addams—against a pro-war faction led by pragmatist philosopher and educational theorist John Dewey.

Bourne felt America would grow more as a country by broadening people's views to include immigrants' ways instead of conforming everyone to the melting-pot ideal.

This broadening of people's views would eventually lead to a nation where all who live in it are united, which would inevitably pull the country towards greatness.