William Edward Leuchtenburg

Professor William E. Leuchtenburg is the William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. William E. Leuchtenburg is a politically active historian whose primary scholarly focus has been the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the continuing influence of Roosevelt's New Deal programs on the United States. Following short stints teaching history at New York University, Smith College, and Harvard University, Leuchtenburg in 1952 began a long career teaching at Columbia University and then held his position at UNC. Although he officially retired in 1992, Leuchtenburg remained an active part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill History Department for over ten additional years, occasionally teaching classes. Several of his students, including William Chafe, Robert Dallek, Otis Graham, Alonzo Hamby, Richard Polenberg, Harvard Sitkoff, and Howard Zinn, have gone on to successful careers as historians. Leuchtenburg has contributed to both the academic and political realms. His notable works include: The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-1932 (1958); the Bancroft and Parker Prize-winning Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940 (1963); In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to Bill Clinton (1993); The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and His Legacy (1995); and The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt (1995). Leuchtenburg has also served the field of history as president of the American Historical Association, the Society of American Historians, and the Organization of American Historians. To reach a broader audience, he has written articles for publications such as American Heritage and contributed to Ken Burns's documentaries, The Civil War and Baseball. In his role as political analyst, he has consulted with PBS and CBS on presidential inaugurations and worked with NBC on several national elections. He has written extensively on the American presidency and frequently appears as a political analyst on radio and television and in documentary films.