Allen Weinstein: Nominated to be Archivist of the United States

Bruce Craig, in the newsletter for the Coalition for History (April 8, 2004):

HISTORIAN ALLEN WEINSTEIN SLOTTED BY BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO BE NEXT ARCHIVIST OF THE UNITED STATES On 8 April 2004, the White House announced that President George W. Bush intends to nominate historian Allen Weinstein to become the ninth Archivist of the United States. Weinstein currently works at the International Foundation for Elections Systems as Senior Advisor for Democratic Institutions and Director of its Center for Democratic Initiatives. Along with former Archivist of the United State Don W. Wilson, Weinstein is also a trustee of the Boston based Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity, which is affiliated with the Christian Science church.

Earlier in his career, Weinstein was a Professor at Boston University (1985-89), Georgetown University (1981-1984), and Smith College (1966-1981) where he served as a Professor of History and Chair of Smith's American Studies Program. He earned his bachelor's degree from Columbia College and his master's and Ph.D. from Yale University.

In 1985 Weinstein created and served as president of The Center for Democracy, a non-profit foundation located in Washington, D.C. The foundation seeks to promote and strengthen the democratic processes and played an active role in promoting democracy in former Soviet republics following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Weinstein's international awards include the United Nations Peace Medal (1986) for his "efforts to promote peace, dialogue and free elections in several critical parts of the world" and he was twice awarded (1990 and 1996) The Council of Europe's Silver Medal which was presented by its Parliamentary Assembly for Weinstein's "outstanding assistance and guidance over many years."

Weinstein is well-known as a historian of espionage. His most recent book (1999) is "The Haunted Wood Soviet Espionage in America -- The Stalin Era." It is considered a controversial work that was co-authored with a Russian journalist Alexander Vassiliev, a former KGB agent. Weinstein's book "Perjury - The Hiss-Chambers Case" is, in many circles, considered the "definitive" work establishing that Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy. Weinstein has also written more broadly with such books as "Freedom and Crisis: An American History," "Between the Wars: American Foreign Policy From Versailles to Pearl Harbor," and "Prelude to Populism: Origins of the Silver Issue" among his credits. Weinstein's articles and essays have appeared in a wide range of scholarly and popular publications. (For more on Weinstein tap into: http://www.centerfordemocracy.org/awbio.html .)