biography
| name: |
Langer, William (Leonard)
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1896–1977)
|
| biography:
| Historian, born in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. After taking his BA from Harvard (1915) and service with a poison-gas unit in World War 1, he continued his studies at Harvard (1922 PhD). After teaching at Clark University (1923–7), he spent the rest of his career on the Harvard faculty (1927–64), becoming one of the nation's leading authorities on European diplomatic history, military history, and US foreign policy. During World War 2 he worked with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) (1942–5), for which he received the Medal of Merit, and in peacetime he served as an adviser to several governmental agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the State Department, and the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. The author of many scholarly works, he was widely known as the editor of An Encyclopedia of World History (many editions since 1940) and of the Rise of Modern Europe series. He was married (1921–42) to Susanne K Langer, the well-known philosopher. |
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