William Leuchtenburg knows his presidents. The historian is an authority on American presidents, particularly Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Many presidents, including FDR, have traveled to Chapel Hill, Dr. Leuchtenburg’s home. He talks about those visits, the University of North Carolina, and about his collaboration over many years on Ken Burns’ award-winning documentaries. Dr. Leuchtenburg also reads excerpts from his essay, “The Presidents Come to Chapel Hill," featured in Eno Publishers’s 27 Views of Chapel Hill: A Southern College Town in Prose and Poetry.

Historian William Leuchtenburg is the William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor Emeritus of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is a leading scholar of the life and career of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as well as other presidents. He has written and co-authored more than twenty-five books, including Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, and In the Shadow of FDR. In addition, he has contributed many articles to journals and publications over his 80-year career. He is past president of the American Historical Association and other organizations, and has consulted and appeared in many documentaries by filmmaker Ken Burns.