American historian and educator Andrew Dickson White co-founded Cornell University and presided over it as its first president for over 20 years (November 7, 1832 - November 4, 1918). He had a reputation for broadening the purview of college curricula. He had been a politician who had represented New York as a state senator. Later, among other duties, he was designated as an American envoy to Germany and Russia. In his book History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom, he attempted to substantiate the conflict thesis, which holds that science and religion have always been at odds. He was one of the pioneers of this theory. Clara (née Dickson) and Horace White welcomed their son Andrew Dickson White into the world on November 7, 1832 in Homer, New York. Horace was the son of Asa White, a farmer from Massachusetts, and his wife, while Clara was the daughter of Andrew Dickson, a New York State Assemblyman in 1832, and his wife. When Horace was 13 years old, a fire decimated their formerly prosperous farm.