William L. Langer

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William Leonard Langer, Ph.D. (March 16, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was the chair of the history department at Harvard University and the World War II volunteer head of the Research and Analysis branch of the Office of Strategic Services.

Born in South Boston, Massachusetts, he was the second of the three sons of recent German immigrants, Charles Rudolph and Johanna (Rockenbach) Langer. His elder brother Rudolph Langer became a distinguished mathematician and younger brother Walter Charles Langer, a renowned psychoanalyst.

When William was only three years old, his father died unexpectedly, leaving the family in difficult circumstances. Despite their circumstances, his mother, who supported the family by working as a dressmaker, made education a priority for her children. After studying at the Boston Latin School, William Langer attended Harvard University then, fluent in the German language, took a job teaching German Worcester Academy while continuing to further his own education with courses on international relations at Clark University.

His job and education was sidetracked with service in the United States Army on the front lines on the battlefields of France during World War I but post-war, he retuned to his studies and obtained his Ph.D. in 1923.

For four years he taught Modern European history at Clark University before accepting an assistant professorship at Harvard. In 1936, Langer was appointed the first incumbent of the Archibald Coolidge chair.

With the help of other scholars during the 1930s, Langer completely revised the Epitome of History by German Scholar Dr. Karl Ploetz. Langer’s massive work was published in 1940 under the title An Encyclopedia of World History ([1]).

Langer’s last edition (the fifth) was published in 1972, and an edition under another editor took until 2001 when the sixth edition was published under Peter N. Stearns who acknowledged the great shoulders he was standing on in the new introduction.

Following America's involvement in World War II, William Langer was asked by the U.S. government to volunteer his skills with the new Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Langer served as chief of Research and Analysis Branch with the OSS until the end of the war after which he was appointed special assistant for intelligence analysis to the U.S. Secretary of State, James F. Byrnes. In 1950, Langer organized the office of National Estimates in the newly established Central Intelligence Agency. Langer then returned to academia, but from 1961 to 1979 he served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

Post-war, both Harvard and Yale University awarded William Langer LL.D. degrees as did the University of Hamburg in 1955. Among his many involvements, Dr. Langer served as president of the American Historical Association for 1957.

[edit] Writings

An Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, Chronologically Arranged. © 1972, 1968, 1952, 1948, & 1940.
The Franco-Russian Alliance 1890-1894 (1929)
European Alliances and Alignments 1870-1890 (1931)
The Diplomacy of Imperialism (1935) (two volumes)
Our Vichy Gamble (1947)
The Challenge to Isolation, 1937-1940 (1952) with S. Everett Gleason
The Undeclared War, 1940-1941 (1953) with S. Everett Gleason
Political and Social Upheaval, 1832-1852 (1969)
A psychological analysis of Adolph Hitler: His life and legend. M.O. Branch, Office of Strategic Services. (1943) ASIN B0007F56QQ