William L. Langer

William Leonard Langer (March 16, 1896 – December 26, 1977) was the chairman of the history department at Harvard University, He was on leave during World War II as head of the Research and Analysis branch of the Office of Strategic Services. He was a specialist on the diplomacy of the 1870-1900, and 1937-41 periods. He edited numerous books including a series on European history, a large-scale reference book, and a university textbook.

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

When William was only three years old, his father died unexpectedly, leaving the family in difficult circumstances. Nevertheless, his mother, who supported the family by working as a dressmaker, made education a priority for her children.

Education, teaching, family
After studying at the Boston Latin School, Langer attended Harvard University.

Langer was fluent in German, and taught German at Worcester Academy while furthering his own education with courses on international relations at Clark University.

His job and education were interrupted by military service World War I. After the war, he returned to his studies and obtained his Ph.D. in 1923. In 1921, he married Susanne Katherina Langer (née Knauth) who became a noted philosopher. They had two sons together, though later divorced.

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

He was remembered at Harvard especially for his "History 132" course on modern European history, "History 157" on the Ottoman Empire, and the graduate seminars held at his home.

With the help of other scholars during the 1930s, Langer completely revised the Epitome of History by German Scholar Karl Ploetz. Langer’s massive work was published in 1940 under the title An Encyclopedia of World History. Its fifth edition (1972) is the last to be edited by Langer. Peter N. Stearns and thirty other prominent historians edited the sixth edition, published in 2001. Stearns paid tribute to Langer's great achievement in the introduction to the new edition.

In 1957 Langer urged historians to expand their insights with techniques from modern psychology.

War service
Langer was an enlisted man in the United States Army Chemical Service in World War I, and saw combat in a chemical weapons unit on the Western Front in France. He described this experience in a book he wrote with another man in his company.

During World War II, Langer served in the new Office of Strategic Services (OSS), where deputy chief, and later chief of the OSS Research and Analysis Branch until the end of the war. In correspondence he was identified as OSS 117, an identifier which entered French popular culture in 1949 for an unrelated iconic fictional character of books and film. He was 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 1977 he served on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

Honors
William Langer was awarded the Bancroft Prize in 1954. Post-war, both Harvard and Yale University awarded 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.

Writings

 * revised as: Gas and Flame in World War I (1965)
 * 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
 * Conyers Read, 1881-1959: Scholar, Teacher, Public Servant (M. and V. Dean, 1963)
 * Political and Social Upheaval, 1832-1852 (1969)