William Wilhartz Freehling (born December 26, 1935) is an American historian, and Singletary Professor of the Humanities Emeritus at the University of Kentucky.

Early life

Freehling was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 26, 1935, a son of Norman Freehling and Edna ( Wilhartz) Freehling. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1958. He wrote his undergraduate honors thesis under noted U.S. historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. He received his M.A. in 1959 and his Ph.D. in 1964, from the University of California, Berkeley, with historian Kenneth M. Stampp serving as his dissertation supervisor.

Career

Freehling taught at Berkeley, Harvard, the University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins University. He also held endowed chairs at SUNY, Buffalo and Kentucky. Freehling has written several well-respected works on the American South during the antebellum era and on the American Civil War. His most notable book, Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, won the 1967 Bancroft Prize. As of 2011, he was senior fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Personal life

On January 27, 1961, Freehling married Natalie Paperno, with whom he had two children, Alan and Deborah Freehling. Freehling and Natalie divorced in 1970, and on June 19, 1971, Freehling married historian Alison Harrison ( Goodyear) Bradshaw. The former wife of William Emmons Bradshaw, she was a daughter of Frank H. Goodyear Jr. and a granddaughter of lumber baron Frank H. Goodyear and Edmund P. Rogers. Together, they are the parents of two children, Alison and William Freehling.

Awards

Works