Herbert Feis

Herbert Feis (June 7, 1893 – March 2, 1972) was an American Historian and economist.He was the Economic Advisor for International Affairs to the U.S. Department of State in the Hoover and Roosevelt administrations.

Feis wrote at least 13 published books and won the annual Pulitzer Prize for History in 1961 for one of them, Between War and Peace: The Potsdam Conference (Princeton University Press, 1960). It features the Potsdam Conference and the origins of the Cold War.

Feis was born in New York City and raised on the Lower East Side. His parents, Louis Feis and Louise Waterman Feis, were Jewish immigrants from Alsace, France that came to America in the late 1800s. His uncle invented the Waterman stove. He graduated from Harvard University and went on to marry the granddaughter of James Garfield, the 20th president of the US.

He died in Winter Park, Florida.

The Herbert Feis Award is awarded annually since 1984 by the American Historical Association, the pre-eminent professional society of historians, to recognize the recent work of public historians or independent scholars.