Biography

About the Author 

American Heritage Biography

Donald L. Miller is the New York Times bestselling author of ten books, the John Henry MacCracken Emeritus Professor of History at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, and one of the most respected authorities on World War II, the Civil War, and Modern US History. His books have been nominated for, and won a number of prestigious literary awards and he is a frequent consultant and adviser on historical productions for PBS, HBO, The History Channel, and Apple Productions.Image result for donald l miller

His books include Vicksburg: Grant’s Campaign that Broke the Confederacy (2019), Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America (2014), City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Making of America (1996), The Kingdom of Coal: Work, Enterprise, and Ethnic Communities in the Mine Fields (with Richard E. Sharpless, 1999), and Lewis Mumford: A Life (1989). City of the Century won the 1997 Great Lakes Book Award for Outstanding Work of Nonfiction and Lewis Mumford was a New York Times notable Book. His latest book, Vicksburg, won 3 national prizes: The Fletcher Pratt Literary Award, The Daniel M. & Marilyn W. Laney Book Prize, and The Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award. His books have been translated and published in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, French, Hungarian, Czech, and Polish, and published in Canada and the UK.

Miller is widely acclaimed for his books on World War II, most notably the bestselling Masters of the Air: America’s Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany (2007). The book is currently being developed as a dramatic miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Miller previously worked with Spielberg and Hanks as a historical consultant for the ten-part HBO series The Pacific. He was also the on-camera historian, writer, and chief consultant for the series’ accompanying documentary. Miller served as coproducer and cocreator, with Hanks, on He Has Seen War, an HBO documentary on World War II troops returning home. Miller’s other World War II books are D-Days in the Pacific (2004) and The Story of World War II(2001).

Miller with Tom HanksMiller has also served as a writer and historical consultant for dozens of film and TV productions, including the award-winning documentaries Ulysses S. Grant, and Abe and Mary, the story of Abe and Mary Lincoln. The History Channel’s WWII in HD, based upon Miller’s The Story of WWII won 3 Emmys, and The Air War was inspired by his book Masters of the Air, which was critically acclaimed. Miller also wrote the script for the History Channel’s show, The Night of the Long Knives. His contributions to PBS’s “American Experience” series include The Bombing of Germany, Victory in the Pacific (nominated for three Emmys). His PBS program America, 1900 won a Peabody Award for excellence in programming. Miller also co-produced, wrote, and hosted “A Biography of America,” a twenty-six-part series for PBS.

Miller has won six awards for excellence in teaching, five fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a number of prestigious book awards. He was a resident scholar at All Souls College, Oxford, and was the Crayenborgh Lecturer at Leiden University, The Netherlands. He also lectured internationally for the U.S. State Department and the Smithsonian Institution.

In addition to his teaching and writing duties, he is a member Emeritus of the Board of Trustees of St. Vincent College and the National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force. He is a member and cofounder of the Presidential Counselors, an advisory board to the CEO of the National World War II Museum and a Fellow and Seminar Leader of the prestigious Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Miller received his PhD from the University of Maryland and joined the Lafayette College faculty in 1978. He has also taught at Cornell University, the Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and Oxford University. He is the recipient of an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from St. Vincent College and Outstanding Alumni awards from the University of Maryland and Ohio University. His essays and reviews have appeared in the NY Times, the Washington Post, and other national publications.

Following Hurricane Katrina, he appeared on CNN and National Public Radio and was quoted by a number of national publications, including The New York Times, for his writings on American and European urban disasters, including the Great Chicago Fire and the destruction by bombing of the World War II cities of Japan and Germany.

Miller has been the keynote speaker at events sponsored by professional, business, and academic audiences. Among the organizations he has spoken to are: IBM, AT&T, the Federal Reserve Bank (Chicago), The Chicago Historical Society, the Aspen Institute, the Television Critics Association, Russell Reynolds Associates, the New York State Assembly, the American Architectural Association, the Smithsonian Institution, the National D-Day Museum, the Municipal Arts Society, New York, the American Historical Association, the Annenberg Foundation, the World Trade Center Chicago, the Embassy of the United States, London, Churchill College, Cambridge, and the National Press Club.

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