Biography

William I. Hitchcock is the William W. Corcoran Professor of History at the University of Virginia. His work and teaching focus on the international, diplomatic and military history of the 20th Century, in particular the era of the world wars and the cold war.

He received his B.A. degree from Kenyon College in 1986 and his Ph.D. from Yale University in 1994, working under the supervision of Paul Kennedy. He taught at Yale for six years, and served as the Associate Director of International Security Studies there. He published France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe (UNC, 1998) and co-edited a volume with Paul Kennedy titled From War to Peace: Altered Strategic Landscapes in the 20th Century (Yale, 2000). He moved to Wellesley College in 1999, where he taught for five years, and then took a position as a dean and professor of history at Temple University in Philadelphia. After publishing The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent, 1945-present (Doubleday/Anchor, 2002), he went on to write about the experience of liberation at the close of World War II. His book, The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe (Free Press, 2008) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, a winner of the George Louis Beer Prize, and a Financial Times bestseller in the UK. In 2010, he moved to the University of Virginia. His most recent book is The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018), which was a New York Times bestseller. For more information, click here.

He lives in Charlottesville, Virginia and is married to the Civil War historian Elizabeth R. Varon.

Ph.D. Advisees and Dissertation Topics

Mary Barton: The Early History of Counter-Terrorism, 1898-1937. (PhD 2016; Dept of Defense)

Kathleen Berggren: “Forging a Soldier-State Social Contract: Veterans in American Politics, 1919-1980.” (PhD 2016)

Vivien Chang: "Creating the Third World"

Michael De Groot: "Disruption: The Global Economy of the 1970s." (PhD 2017; Asst Prof, Univ Indiana)

Alexandra Evans: "Reagan's Middle East" (PhD 2018)

Matt Frakes: Reagan and Counter-Terrorism

Stephanie Freeman: Nuclear Abolitionism and the End of the Cold War, 1979-1991. (Ph.D. 2017; Asst Prof., Mississippi State Univ.)

Mina Lee: Korea, Asia, and Nuclear Proliferation

Timothy Sayle (Temple University): An International History of NATO, 1956-1968. (PhD 2013; Asst Prof., Univ of Toronto.)

Publications

Books

The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2018. New York Times bestseller.

The Human Rights Revolution: An International History, co-edited with Akira Iriye and Petra Goedde. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.

The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe. (New York: The Free Press/Simon and Schuster, 2008). Published simultaneously in Britain by Faber and Co., London.

• Winner, 2009 George Louis Beer Prize, American Historical Association.
•  Finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.
•  Finalist for the 2009 Mark Lynton History Prize.
•  Named to “Ten Best Books” List for 2008, Independent (UK)
•  Bestseller List, Financial Times (UK).
•  Translation: Dutch, Swedish, Italian, Polish.

The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent, 1945-present  (New York: Doubleday, 2003; London, Profile Books, 2003; Anchor Books paperback, 2004).

• Hebrew translation: ha-Maavak `al Eropah : ha-historyah ha-so`eret shel yabeshet mehuleket, 1945 `ad yamenu (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2006).
• Italian translation: Il continente diviso: Storia dell’Europa dal 1945 a oggi. (Rome: Carocci, 2005).

From War to Peace: Altered Strategic Landscapes in the Twentieth Century. Co-edited with Paul Kennedy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000).

France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Stability in Europe, 1945-1954 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1998).

•  A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 1999.

Awards & Honors

2009 George Louis Beer Prize, American Historical Association.

 Finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.

 Finalist for the 2009 Mark Lynton History Prize.

Yale University: 1999 Sarai Ribicoff Teaching Award

Courses Taught

The Cold War

War and Society in the Twentieth Century

Europe since 1945

Twentieth Century International History

Occupied Europe, 1939-1945: Genocide, Resistance, Collaboration

The Global Crisis: World Politics in the 20th Century

Strategy and Diplomacy of the Great Powers, 1750 to the Present

The American Century: 20th Century U.S. Foreign Relations

Historical Origins of Contemporary Conflict: War in Today’s World

The First World War

The Second World War