William E. Leuchtenburg

William E. Leuchtenburg, a prominent 20th century historian, is the William Rand Kenan, Jr. professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He has won the Bancroft and Parkman prizes, and has written numerous books on Franklin D. Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, and the New Deal. He won the 2007 North Carolina Award for Literature.

Articles by this Contributor

The Wrong Man At The Wrong Time | Summer 2009

For all his previous successes, President Herbert Hoover proved incapable of arresting the economic free fall of the Depression— or soothing the fears of a distressed nation Read >>

Modern America 1917 To 1941 | November/December 2004

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The Conversion Of Harry Truman | November 1991

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A Visit With LBJ | May/june 1990

An hour and a half of growing astonishment in the presence of the President of the United States, as recorded by a witness who now publishes a record of it for the first time Read >>

“most Americans Don’t Know What Lincoln Really Represents” | December 1990

For a good part of his life, the governor of New York has used history as a guide—and a solace Read >>

Why the Candidates Still Use FDR as Their Measure | February 1988

It’s not surprising that Democrats seek to wrap themselves in the Roosevelt cloak; what’s harder to understand is why so many Republicans do too. A distinguished historian explains. Read >>

The Case Of The Chambermaid And The Nine Old Men | December 1986

When Elsie Parrish was fired, her fight for justice led to dramatic changes in the nation’s highest court. Read >>

FDR And The Kingfish | October/november 1985

A brilliant demagogue named Huey Long was scrambling for the Presidency when an assassin’s bullets cut him down just fifty years ago Read >>

John F. Kennedy, Twenty Years Later | December 1983

Was the murdered President one of our best, a man of “vigor, rationality, and noble vision” or was he “an optical illusion,” “an expensively programmed waxwork”? A noted historian examines the mottled evolution of his reputation. Read >>

The Needless War With Spain | February 1957

"The current was too strong, the demagogues too numerous, the fall elections too near" Read >>