Lenard R. Berlanstein, 65, a professor of history at the University of Virginia, died Feb. 24 at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

He had lung cancer, said a brother, Bruce Berlanstein.

Dr. Berlanstein joined U-Va.’s history faculty in 1973 and taught courses on modern European cultural history until his retirement in 2011. He wrote six books, most recently “Daughters of Eve: A Cultural History of French Theater Women From the Old Regime to the Fin-de-Siecle” (2001).

Lenard Russell Berlanstein was born in Brooklyn and was a 1969 graduate of the University of Michigan. He received a master’s degree in 1971 and a doctorate in 1973, both in history from Johns Hopkins University....