McNeill, William H(ardy) (1917– )

Canadian historian. Running counter to the trend of his contemporary academics, who tended to specialize in ever smaller periods and topics, he took on a wide variety of subjects in such books as Venice: The Hinge of Europe, 1081–1797 and The Metamorphosis of Greece since World War II (1978). Beyond such studies, he became one of the few modern historians since Arnold Toynbee who dared to take on the world's history. As such McNeill recognized the ambiguity of human experience while expressing the hope that historical studies might enhance practical wisdom.

McNeill was born in Vancouver, Canada. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Cornell University, gaining his PhD in 1947. With the exception of occasional visiting professorships elsewhere, he taught his entire career at the University of Chicago (from 1947). His other books include The Rise and Fall of the West: A History of the Human Community (1963), which won the National Book Award in 1964, and The Human Condition: An Ecological and Historical View (1980). He also served as editor-in-chief of the ten-volume Readings in World History (1968–73).