Melvyn P. Leffler Explained

Melvyn P. Leffler
Birth Name:	Melvyn Paul Leffler
Birth Date:	31 May 1945
Birth Place:	New York City, U.S.
Nationality:	American
Education:	Cornell University (BS) Ohio State University (PhD)
Awards:	Bancroft Prize (1993) George Louis Beer Prize (2008)
Children:	2
Parents:	Louis Leffler Mollie Leffler

Melvyn Paul Leffler (born May 31, 1945, in Brooklyn, New York)^[1] is an American historian and educator, currently Edward Stettinius Professor of History at the University of Virginia.^[2] He is the winner of numerous awards, including the Bancroft Prize for his book A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration and the Cold War, and the American Historical Association’s George Louis Beer Prize for his book For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War.

Life

The son of businessman Louis and Mollie Leffler, he married historian Phyllis Koran on September 1, 1968; they have one daughter, Sarah Ann and one son, Elliot.

Education

Leffler received a B.S. from Cornell University in 1966, and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University in 1972.

Career

Leffler taught at Vanderbilt University as assistant professor in 1972 to 1977, and associate professor of history in 1977 to 2002. He was chairman of the department of history and dean of the college and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia from 1997 to 2001. In 1994, he was president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. He was Harold Vyvyan Harmsworth Professor of American History at the University of Oxford from 2002 to 2003. He currently teaches at the University of Virginia as a professor of history and is a scholar of the Miller Center.

Books he has authored or edited include the following: Safeguarding Democratic Capitalism: U.S. Foreign Policy and National Security, 1920-2015 (Princeton University Press, 2017); The Cambridge History of the Cold War (3 vols.; Cambridge University Press, 2010); and The Cold War: An International History (2nd ed.; Routledge, 2005).

In 2014, the University of Virginia gave him its Thomas Jefferson Award for excellence in scholarship. The Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations honored him in 2012 with its Laura and Norman Graebner Award for lifetime achievement and service.

Leffler has served on advisory committees to the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, particularly concerning the declassification of documents.^[3]

Awards

2008 George Louis Beer Prize for For the Soul of Mankind: the United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War
2004-2005 Randolph Jennings Fellow, United States Institute of Peace
2004-2005 Henry Kissinger Fellow, Library of Congress^[4]
2001-2002 Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars Fellow
1993 Bancroft Prize for A Preponderance of Power: National Security, the Truman Administration and the Cold War
1993 Ferrell Prize
1993 Hoover Prizes
1993, 1997 Norwegian Nobel Peace Institute Fellowship
1973, 1984-85 American Council of Learned Societies, Fellowships, Grants-in-Aid
1984-85 Lehrman Institute Fellowship

Selected publications

Confronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq, Oxford University Press, 2023.
Book: For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War . New York, NY . . 2007 . 978-0-809-09717-3 .
Book: The Beginning and the End: Time, Context, and the Cold War . In Olav Njølstad, ed., The Last Decade of the Cold War: From Conflict Escalation to Conflict Transformation . London & New York, NY . . 2004 . 23–49 . 978-0-7146-8539-7 .
Book: Bringing It Together: Parts and the Whole . In Odd Arne Westad, ed., Reviewing the Cold War: Approaches, Interpretations, Theory . London & Portland, OR . . 2000 . 43–63 . 978-0-714-65072-2 .
Book: From war to peace: altered strategic landscapes in the twentieth century . American Grand Strategy from World War to Cold War 1940-1950. Paul Kennedy . William I. Hitchcock. Yale University Press. 2000. 978-0-300-08010-0 .
"Inside Enemy Archives: The Cold War Reopened", Foreign Affairs, July/August 1996
Book: The Specter of Communism: The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, 1917-1953. Eric Foner. Hill and Wang. 1994. 978-0-8090-1574-0. registration.
Book: American foreign relations reconsidered, 1890-1993. registration . The interpretative wars over the Cold War 1945-1960. Gordon Martel. Routledge. 1994. 978-0-415-10476-0 .
Book: Explaining the history of American foreign relations . registration. National Security. Michael J. Hogan . Thomas G. Paterson. Cambridge University Press. 2004. 978-0-521-54035-3 . (2nd edition)
Book: A Preponderance of Power: National Security, The Truman Administration, and the Cold War. Stanford University Press. 1992. 978-0-8047-2218-6 .
Book: World War II: crucible of the contemporary world: commentary and readings . Adherence to Agreements: Yalta and the Experiences of the Early Cold War. Loyd E. Lee. M.E. Sharpe. 1991. 978-0-87332-732-9 .
Book: Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce: studies in New Era thought and practice. Herbert Hoover, the "New Era," and American Foreign Policy 1921-1929. Ellis Wayne Hawley. University of Iowa Press. 1981. 978-0-87745-109-9 .
Book: The Elusive Quest: America's Pursuit of European Stability and French Security, 1919-1933. University of North Carolina Press. 1979. 978-0-8078-1333-1.

Editor

(Co-editor with Odd Arne Westad). Book: The Cambridge History of the Cold War 3 Volume Set . Cambridge . . 2010 . 978-0-521-83938-9 .
(Co-editor with Jeffrey W. Legro). Book: To Lead the World: After the Bush Doctrine . Oxford University Press . 2008. 978-0-19-536941-0 .
(Co-editor with David S. Painter). Book: Origins of the Cold War: An International History . 2nd . New York & London . Routledge . 2005 . 1994 . 978-0-415-34109-7.

External links

Notes and References

Web site: Leffler, Melvyn Paul 1945- (Melvyn Leffler, Melvyn P. Leffler) Encyclopedia.com.
Web site: Melvyn P. Leffler | Corcoran Department of History . 2009-12-28 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090402181757/http://www.virginia.edu/history/user/34 . 2009-04-02 .
Web site: Prize-winning Historian to Speak on the Cold War at Carls-Schwerdfeger Lectureship News Department of History Union University, a Christian College in Tennessee. www.uu.edu. 2019-02-09.
Web site: Melvyn P. Leffler Named Henry Alfred Kissinger Scholar in Foreign Policy and International Relations at Library of Congress. .