[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 161 (Friday, October 7, 2022)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1029-E1030]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY TO WILLIAM LEUCHTENBURG, EMINENT HISTORIAN

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. DAVID E. PRICE

                           of north carolina

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 7, 2022

  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the life 
and work of Professor William (Bill) Leuchtenburg, who celebrated his 
100th birthday on September 28 and will be feted by his friends in 
Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the hometown we share, this weekend. Bill 
is a distinguished scholar, devoted educator, and friend and counselor 
to many, including myself.
  In fact, reading Bill's ``The Perils of Prosperity, 1914-32'' as an 
undergraduate 62 years ago helped attract me to completing a history 
major at UNC-Chapel Hill. In the 1980s, I assigned successive editions 
of ``In the Shadow of FDR'' to my classes in American Political 
Thought. In the meantime, I had gotten to know Bill personally through 
his fellowships at the National Humanities Center and his assumption--
after a distinguished 30-year career at Columbia University--of a Kenan 
professorship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
  Bill won the Bancroft Prize and the Parkman Prize of the Society of 
American Historians for ``Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-
1940.'' with Samuel Eliott Morrison and Henry Steele Commager, he took 
the two-volume ``The Growth of the American Republic'' through two 
editions. He dealt with key aspects of the Roosevelt era in ``The 
Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of 
Roosevelt'' and ``The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and His Legacy.'' His 
published articles range from ``The Needless War with Spain'' to 
``Court Packing Plans,'' ``Jimmy Carter and the Post-New Deal 
Presidency,'' and ``The Boston Red Sox, 1901-1946.''
  Bill's long, varied, and impactful bibliography earned him his first 
Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. Prize for distinguished writing in American 
history of enduring public significance, awarded by the Society of 
American Historians. But the printed record only begins to reveal Bill 
Leuchtenburg's impact on America's self-understanding and public life. 
By virtue of his effervescent personality, boundless energy, and strong 
ethic of civic engagement, Bill's range of activities and their impact 
are remarkable even for a 100-year life span. His political engagements 
go back to the 1940s, when he was a state director for the Americans 
for Democratic Action, 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. He served over many years as an election analyst and commentator 
on presidential inaugurations for national networks. He has advised and 
appeared in many of Ken Burns' acclaimed documentaries on topics 
including the Civil War, the Roosevelts, the Vietnam War, National 
Parks, baseball and country music.
  When Bill's international colleagues honored him at Cambridge 
University upon the 30th anniversary of ``Franklin D. Roosevelt and the 
New Deal,'' they entitled the session ``In the Shadow of 
Leuchtenburg,'' a takeoff on the title of the book on FDR's impact that 
he took through six editions. Indeed, Bill casts a long shadow with 
works translated into multiple languages, a teaching and lecture 
circuit that includes most of the U.S. and Western Europe, Russia, 
Israel, and South Africa, and a huge worldwide network of students, 
colleagues, collaborators, and admirers.
   I am privileged to count myself in that circle of colleagues and 
friends, and North Carolina is exceedingly grateful and proud that this 
preeminent scholar and exemplary citizen has

[[Page E1030]]

lived and worked among us these past 40 years. I extend to Bill and his 
wife, Jean Anne, hearty congratulations and good wishes for health and 
happiness in the years ahead.

                          ____________________