William I. Hitchcock was born in Fukuoka, Japan, in 1965, the son of a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. He graduated from Kenyon College in Ohio and received his Ph.D. in history from Yale University in 1994. A former professor and prize-winning teacher at Yale, he is currently Professor of History at the University of Virginia and Director of Academic Programs at the Miller Center. He is the author of France Restored: Cold War Diplomacy and the Quest for Leadership in Europe, 1944-1954 and The Bitter Road to Freedom: A New History of the Liberation of Europe, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

From the ashes of World War II to the conflict over Iraq, William Hitchcock examines the miraculous transformation of Europe from a deeply fractured land to a continent striving for stability, tolerance, democracy, and prosperity. Exploring the role of Cold War politics in Europe's peace settlement and the half century that followed, Hitchcock reveals how leaders such as Charles de Gaulle, Willy Brandt, and Margaret Thatcher balanced their nations' interests against the demands of the reigning superpowers, leading to great strides in economic and political unity. He re-creates Europeans' struggles with their troubling legacy of racial, ethnic, and national antagonism, and shows that while divisions persist, Europe stands on the threshold of changes that may profoundly shape the future of world affairs.