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 Author

The Wrong Man at the Wrong Time, Summer 2009 | Vol. 59, No. 2

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.

Books Worth Reading on Modern America , November/December 2004 | Vol. 55, No. 6

The Conversion of Harry Truman, November 1991 | Vol. 42, No. 7

A child of the South's "Lost Cause," Truman broke with his convictions to make civil rights a concern of the national government for the first time since Reconstruction. In so doing, he changed the nation forever.

“Most Americans Don’t Know What Lincoln Really Represents”, December 1990 | Vol. 41, No. 8

Governor Mario Cuomo of New York has used history as a guide and a solace for a good part of his life.

A Visit With LBJ, May/June 1990 | Vol. 41, No. 4

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

Why the Candidates Still Use FDR as Their Measure, February 1988 | Vol. 39, No. 1

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.

The Case of the Chambermaid and the Nine Old Men, December 1986 | Vol. 38, No. 1

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

FDR and the Kingfish, October/November 1985 | Vol. 36, No. 6

A brilliant demagogue named Huey Long was scrambling for the presidency when an assassin’s bullets cut him down just 50 years ago.

John F. Kennedy, Twenty Years Later, December 1983 | Vol. 35, No. 1

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.

The Needless War With Spain, February 1957 | Vol. 8, No. 2

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

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