The publication is reproduced in full below:
HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY TO WILLIAM LEUCHTENBURG, EMINENT HISTORIAN
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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 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.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 161(1), Congressional Record Vol. 168, No. 161(2)
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