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Bruce Campbell Hopper was born in Illinois in 1892 and grew up in Montana. He attended the University of Montana for a short time and in 1916, he went to Harvard on a scholarship from the Montana Harvard Club. During World War I he served in the American Field Service (1917), the Air Service (1917-1919), the Historical Section G.H.Q., Chaumont (1919), and Sorbonne Detachment (1919). In the spring of 1918, he was disabled in an air crash, but recovered to become a flight leader in the 96th Squadron. He later wrote a book about the 96th Squadron. He also worked as a consultant and speechwriter for General Carl A. Spaatz. Hopper received the Croix de Guerre, the Pershing Citation, the Legion of Honor, among numerous other decorations for his service in World War I. Upon his discharge in 1919, he studied at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Oxford University.

From 1920 to 1923 Hopper traveled all over Europe, the Middle East, India, Burma, and China. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Honolulu, Montana, and Shanghai. Hopper studied in the Soviet Union as a fellow of the Institute of Current and World Affairs from 1926 to 1929. He went on to earn a B.S. (1924), an M.A. (1925), and a Ph.D. (1930) from Harvard University. He was made an assistant professor in 1930 and an associate professor in 1937. Hopper took a six year sabbatical from teaching during World War II to serve with the OSS in Sweden and he was also a Historian with the 8th Air Force and U.S. Strategic Air Forces. He subsequently served in the Pentagon as special consultant to General Spaatz. He was involved in Air Force missions to Europe during the post-war years and he co-founded the Air University (Colorado Springs), 1946-1947.

In the 1950s, Campbell lectured internationally including tours in Panama in 1953, eleven European countries in 1954, and to German universities in 1958. Hopper was also a Trustee of the World Peace Foundation and member of the Institute of Pacific Relations and the American-Russian Institute, and Council of the Foreign Policy Association and Council on Foreign Relations. After retiring from Harvard in 1961, Hopper lived in Santa Barbara, California. Hopper died on July 6, 1973.