Melvyn P. Leffler, Professor of History at the University of Virginia, will receive the American Historical Association’s 2008 George Louis Beer Prize for his book “For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War.”
Leffler, named the Randolph Jennings Fellow at the United States Institution for Peace in 2004 and Henry A. Kissinger Fellow in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress in 2004 said he was surprised and deeply gratified by the award, which he will receive in January at the association’s annual meeting in New York City.
Leffler said he has a passion for the history of foreign relations because international diplomacy involves “some of the most important things — war and peace, life and death…”and he went on to say, “This is the best prize the American Historical Association gives to a writer of history of international relations. It is exhilarating to be able to step down from the deanship and revive one’s scholarly career.”
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