William Lee Miller
William Lee Miller was an influential American scholar, born in 1926 in Bloomington, Indiana. He earned his A.B. degree with honors from the University of Nebraska in 1947 and later obtained a bachelor's of divinity degree from Yale University in 1950. Miller had a distinguished academic career, serving as an instructor and later a professor of social ethics at Yale, with additional professorships at institutions such as Indiana University, the University of Virginia, and Princeton University. His work often intersected religion, politics, and morality, as evidenced by his first book, "The Protestant and Politics," published in 1958. Miller later gained recognition for his presidential biographies, notably about Jimmy Carter and Abraham Lincoln, with "Lincoln's Virtues: An Ethical Biography" released in 2002. Throughout his career, he received numerous accolades, including the D. B. Hardeman Prize for the best book about Congress. Miller's contributions to ethics and political discourse have left a significant mark on academic and public thought.
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William Lee Miller
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- Born: April 21, 1926
- Birthplace: Bloomington, Indiana
- Died: May 27, 2012
Biography
William Lee Miller was born in 1926 in Bloomington, Indiana. He attended the University of Nebraska, where he earned an A.B. degree with honors in 1947. In 1949, Miller married Linda Moore, a university dean of admissions. The following year, he received his bachelor’s of divinity degree from Yale University.
In 1951, Miller became an instructor of social ethics at Yale University, later becoming an assistant professor and associate professor at the university. Highlights of his long and prestigious academic career include professorships at Indiana University, the University of Virginia, Princeton University, Wesleyan University, and Austin College. Miller also served as the White Burkette Center Professor of Ethics and Institutions, the seminar leader for the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies, the organizer of the Levi-Strauss Company’s Seminar in the Humanities, the national president of the student Young Men’s Christian Association, and president of the National Student Assembly.
Miller’s first book, The Protestant and Politics, was published in 1958, and some of his early books similarly focused on religion, politics, and morality. In 1978 he turned to presidential biographies, publishing Yankee from Georgia: The Emergence of Jimmy Carter. Miller also published two books about Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln’s Second Inaugural: A Study in Political Ethics (1980) and Lincoln’s Virtues: An Ethical Biography (2002).
Miller was the recipient of many awards, including the D. B. Hardeman Prize for the best book about Congress, the Mitchell Prize from the Woodlands Conference on Economic Growth, and numerous grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Lilly Endowment.