Leuchtenburg, William E(dward) (1922– )

US historian. A participant in 20th-century liberal Democratic politics as well as a historian, he received Bancroft and Francis Parkman prizes for Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932–40 (1963). He held executive positions with the Americans for Democratic Action (1948–49); was a delegate at the 1952 Democratic National Convention; elections analyst for the National Broadcasting Company (1962, 1964, 1968, 1972); member of the National Study Commission on Records and Documents of Federal Officials (1975–77); and served as adviser to the Social Security Administration and on the editorial advisory boards of Political Science Quarterly and American Heritage.

Leuchtenburg was born in Ridgewood, New York. Educated at Cornell and Columbia universities, he gained his PhD in 1951 and subsequently taught at Smith College, Harvard University, and Columbia University (1952–75), before joining the faculty at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (from 1982).