William E. Leuchtenburg

William E. Leuchtenburg, a prize-winning historian widely admired for his authoritative writings on the U.S. presidency and as the reigning scholar on Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, died on January 28, 2025, at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was 102. He was a prolific author, enjoying a publishing career that spanned over seventy years, beginning with his first book, Flood Control Politics (1953) to his last—Patriot Presidents: George Washington to John Quincy Adams which appeared in 2024, two months before his 102nd birthday. Leuchtenburg profoundly influenced how scholars and the public understand the political, social, and economic dynamics of 20th-century America. His ability to blend meticulous scholarship with engaging writing made his works accessible not only to academics, but also to general readers. His infectious enthusiasm, his devotion to teaching and mentoring, and his judicious embrace of civic engagement inspired generations of students in the United States and abroad. Over his career he served as president of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Society of American Historians, a trifecta honor that only two American historians have accomplished.

Leuchtenburg was born on September 28, 1922 in Brooklyn, New York, the first child of a German-American father who was a post office worker and an Irish immigrant mother who grew up in the gritty New York City neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen. His fascination with politics was triggered early when his parents allowed him to stay up beyond his usual bedtime to listen to a radio broadcast of the 1932 Democratic convention; he tracked the delegate votes for Franklin D. Roosevelt with the attention he kept scorecards for baseball games. At age 12, he raised money tutoring neighborhood kids to fund a nine-hour bus ride to Washington, where he would recall his “wide-eyed” tour of the White House and the “brand-new marble palace of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

In 1939, Leuchtenburg left the borough of Queens, for Ithaca, New York, where he made his way through Cornell University supported by State Regents scholarships and earnings from summer jobs, including a stint as a bicycle vendor selling Good Humor ice cream bars. At Cornell, he got jobs cleaning test tubes and typing professors’ manuscripts, via the National Youth Administration, an agency established under the New Deal.

After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in European History from Cornell in 1943, he enrolled at Columbia University, focusing on modern American history and completing a Ph.D. in 1951. Initially teaching at New York University, Smith College, and Harvard University, he returned to Columbia to assume the position of DeWitt Clinton Professor of History. Over the following thirty years, he developed a national reputation as a leading expert of the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1982, he moved to the University of North Carolina, where he taught for two more decades, retiring as the William Rand Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor in 2002. He continued to serve on the UNC Press Board of Governors and performed other service for the university. For his exemplary contributions to the understanding of U.S. history, he received the honorary degree of Humane Letters from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2021. He was also a visiting professor at Cornell, Harvard, the College of William & Mary, the University of Richmond, and Bowdoin, among other universities, and he held the Harmsworth Chair at the University of Oxford.

Of his many books, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932–1940 is deemed by many to be his most influential work. It received both the prestigious Bancroft Prize and the Francis Parkman Prize when it was published in 1963. Fondly remembered by generations of students is The Perils of Prosperity (1958), which traces the history of the U.S. from World War I to the peak of the Great Depression, focusing on the “transformation of the country from an agrarian, moralistic, isolationist nation into an industrial, liberal and engaged power involved in foreign affairs in spite of itself.” Other notable works include The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt (1996), The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and His Legacy (1997), The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton (2015), and In the Shadow of FDR. The latter, published in 1983 and periodically updated, explored how Roosevelt’s successors attempted to shun and/or embrace his legacy. At the time of his death, Leuchtenburg was working on a new edition that would have included Joe Biden. A 2005 book, The White House Looks South, featured sections on Roosevelt, Truman, and Lyndon Johnson, describing how each embraced or distanced himself from the South. In the prologue, Leuchtenburg noted his own journey, remembering visits to Florida for baseball spring training games, and never failing on New Year’s Day to partake of black-eyed peas and collard greens, “even if they are eaten with a grimace.” He concluded, “In sum, I am in, but not of, the South.” His long, varied, and impactful bibliography earned him the first Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Prize for distinguished writing in American history of enduring public significance. In 2007, Governor Mike Easley bestowed on Leuchtenburg the North Carolina Award for Literature.

As a professor, Leuchtenburg mentored generations of students who went on to successful careers in academia, public service, and journalism. He was known for his engaging lectures, in which he brought history to life by connecting past events with contemporary political concerns. He was often described as a passionate and dedicated teacher who had an unshakeable belief in the importance of history as a lens for understanding the present. Students would affectionately refer to him as the “The Big L” and comment on his lectures as “enlightening and exciting,” “Absolutely perfect … the model of what a university lecturer should be like,” and “Unparalleled, every lecture a gem.” The American Historical Association’s biography of Leuchtenburg remarked that “His graduate lecture classes were enormous, and his seminars, too, were always filled.…In his large, book-lined office at Columbia, or more recently in his office at UNC-Chapel Hill, those who wrote doctoral dissertations under his direction learned the craft of history from a kind and generous but also intellectually demanding mentor.” Many of those whom he mentored went on to become influential historians in their own right, including William Chafe, Robert Dallek, Christopher Lasch and Howard Zinn. He dedicated one of his books to 89 of his former graduate students who wrote about the New Deal era. He reached legions of other college students through The Growth of the American Republic, a classic textbook that was first published in 1930. The book’s original authors, Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager, one of Leuchtenburg’s mentors, invited him to contribute as a co-author, leading to an updated 1,831-page sixth edition in 1969, which incorporated new material on social history and African American history, among other subjects.

Leuchtenburg’s range of activities and their impact was not confined to the ivory tower. In an entry into the Congressional Record on the occasion of Leuchtenburg’s 100th birthday, North Carolina Congressman David Price pointed out, “Bill’s political engagements go back to the1940s, when he was a state director for Americans for Democratic Action, on the field staff for the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and an organizer for Richard Bolling’s first campaign for the U.S. House. In 1987, he joined Walter Dellinger and John Hope Franklin in testifying against Robert Bork’s appointment to the Supreme Court.” In 1965, he and other historians marched to Montgomery, Alabama, with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also found time to serve as an election analyst for NBC News, first with the anchors Chet Huntley and David Brinkley, then with John Chancellor, and went on to provide commentary on presidential inaugurations for PBS and CBS. He participated in the CBS coverage of Jacqueline Onassis’s funeral in Manhattan and at Arlington Cemetery with Dan Rather. Additionally, he joined lawsuits to stop President Richard M. Nixon from destroying the Watergate tapes and to keep Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger from sequestering transcripts of official phone conversations. At Britain’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, he gave the inaugural address in honor of the Queen at the U.S. Embassy in Grosvenor Square. For more than four decades, he collaborated with Ken Burns on documentaries including “The Civil War,” “Baseball,” “The Vietnam War,” “National Parks,” and “Country Music,” and he appeared on camera in “Prohibition” and “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History.” He was enlisted by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin to select the quotations carved into the granite of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, which opened in 1997.

His first marriage, to Jean McIntire, ended in divorce. In 1985, he married Jean Anne Williams, who became his editor and assistant, helping him polish manuscripts that he would draft on an old Olympia manual typewriter. As he recently wrote in the dedication at the beginning of his last book, Patriot Presidents, “For Jean Anne, My magnificent partner in this book as in life—With gratitude for her devotion and admiration for her splendid editorial skills.” In addition to his wife, he is survived by his sons: Thomas, Christopher, Joshua Leuchtenburg, and stepson Christopher Williams and their spouses Lucy, Laurie, Tamara Leuchtenburg, and Penny Rodrick-Williams; six grandchildren: Cynthia, Brian, Michael, Alex, Jessica, Julia; two step-grandsons: Alexander, and Benjamin; and three great-grandchildren: William, Teddy, and Lachlan. His family remembers him not only as a brilliant academic but also as a devoted father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and husband, whose love for history was matched only by his love for his family. His intellectual curiosity, generosity of spirit, and sense of humor were qualities that endeared him to those who knew him personally and professionally.

Over his long and productive career, William Leuchtenburg reshaped the way we understand American politics, bringing new insights into the complexities of the 20th century and beyond. He believed a knowledge of history is essential to protecting civil society and our democratic culture. He will continue to influence generations of scholars and policymakers; but most importantly and indelibly, he will leave a legacy of kindness, support, and love. Indeed, he embodied the American dream and was honored to tell the story of the American experience.

A public celebration of his life will be held in North Carolina at the National Humanities Center on May 4, 2025, at 3:00 p.m.

Memorial contributions may be offered on behalf of William Leuchtenburg to the University of North Carolina Press; to TABLE, a local non-profit focused exclusively on childhood hunger in Orange County; and to InterAct in Wake County, a provider of services supporting victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

(This obituary includes excerpts from the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Associated Press commentary.)