Walter LaFeber Biography

Walter LaFeber is one of Cornell's most dynamic and effective teachers and one of the nation's most distinguished historians of American foreign policy. In his 46 years of teaching at Cornell, his courses and seminars have attracted legions of students, many of whom remark on his lasting influence. He is known for his warmth and ease, eschewing formal lectures for an engaging conversational style that incorporates drama and humor. He has such command of his material that he rarely needs notes to deliver powerful analyses with ample illustrations.

LaFeber is the Andrew H. and James S. Tisch Distinguished University Professor and a Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow. He served as the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of American History from 1968 to 2001.

He has written and co-authored nearly 20 books, dozens of articles, and countless newspaper op-ed pieces, notably in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Newsday. His most recent book, The Clash: U.S. Relations with Japan from the 1850s to the Present, received the Bancroft Prize and the Ellis Hawley Prize. It is hailed as "the best history of U.S.-Japanese relations in any language."

LaFeber is highly regarded among his colleagues, and many historians and students of history have been influenced by his contributions to the field. He is past president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, a Guggenheim Fellow, and a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has also served on numerous scholarly editorial boards and the Advisory Committee to the Historical Division of the Department of State. He has appeared on Walter Cronkite's "American Presidencies," PBS-TV's "American Experiences," and BBC-TV's "End of the Cold War."

The son of a grocer in Walkerton, Indiana, LaFeber was encouraged by his father to pursue higher education. He earned his B.A. in 1955 from Hanover College, and once reflected that "in this little Presbyterian school in southern Indiana I had really the best teacher I've run across. He got a lot of us interested in history."

LaFeber earned his M.A. from Stanford University in 1956 and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1959. Upon earning his doctorate, he was appointed to the Cornell faculty.
Walter and Sandra (Sandy) LaFeber have celebrated 50 years of marriage, and the couple raised two children, Scott LaFeber and Suzanne (Suzie) LaFeber Kahl, both of whom reside in the Boston area. LaFeber is the grandfather of Trevor and Matt Kahl.

LaFeber is a consummate sports fan and self-admitted sportswriter wannabe. He cheers for the New York Yankees, the Chicago Cubs and Notre Dame's Fighting Irish—in addition, of course, to all of the Cornell sports teams. He also enjoys being a spectator every year at major league baseball's spring training camps in Arizona.

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