Lee Willard Edwards (born 1932) is an American academic and author, currently a fellow at

The Heritage Foundation The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presiden ...

. He is a historian of the

conservative movement in the United States Conservatism in the United States is a political and social philosophy based on a belief in limited government, individualism, traditionalism, republicanism, and limited federal governmental power in relation to U.S. states. Conservative ...

Early life and education

Edwards was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1932. Edwards says he was influenced by the politics of his parents, both

anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...

. His father Willard was a journalist for the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

''. He holds a bachelor's degree in English from

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

and a doctorate in political science from

Catholic University Catholic higher education includes universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education privately run by the Catholic Church, typically by religious institutes. Those tied to the Holy See are specifically called pontifical univ ...

. His dissertation was entitled ''Congress and the origins of the Cold War, 1946–1948''.

Career

Edwards helped found

Young Americans for Freedom Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) is a conservative youth activism organization that was founded in 1960 as a coalition between traditional conservatives and libertarians on American college campuses. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization ...

(YAF) in 1960, and then worked for the YAF magazine ''New Guard'' as editor. In 1963, he became news director of the

Draft Goldwater Committee The Draft Goldwater Committee was the organization primarily responsible for engineering the nomination of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater for President of the United States on the 1964 Republican Party ticket. Beginnings The effort to draft Goldw ...

. His publications include biographies of

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

William F. Buckley William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...

Edwin Meese Edwin Meese III (born December 2, 1931) is an American attorney, law professor, author and member of the Republican Party who served in official capacities within the Ronald Reagan's gubernatorial administration (1967–1974), the Reagan pres ...

, and

Barry Goldwater Barry Morris Goldwater (January 2, 1909 – May 29, 1998) was an American politician and United States Air Force officer who was a five-term U.S. Senator from Arizona (1953–1965, 1969–1987) and the Republican Party nominee for presiden ...

, and a work of history, ''The Conservative Revolution: The Movement That Remade America'' and ''The Power of Ideas''. He acted as senior editor for the '' World & I'', owned by a subsidiary of

Sun Myung Moon Sun Myung Moon (; born Yong Myung Moon; 6 January 1920 – 3 September 2012) was a Korean religious leader, also known for his business ventures and support for conservative political causes. A messiah claimant, he was the founder of the Unif ...

's Unification Church. Edwards was the founding director of the

Institute on Political Journalism The Fund for American Studies is a conservative non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1967, the organization's mission is "to win over each new generation to the ideas of liberty, limited government and free markets." Hist ...

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

and a fellow at the

Harvard Institute of Politics The Institute of Politics (IOP) is an institute of Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University that was created to serve as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy, as well as to inspire Harvard undergraduates to consider careers in politi ...

. He is a past president of the Philadelphia Society and has been a media fellow at the

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace; abbreviated as Hoover) is an American public policy think tank and research institution that promotes personal and economic liberty, free enterprise, and ...

. He is a distinguished fellow in conservative thought in the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at

, and , was an

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

of politics at the

Catholic University of America The Catholic University of America (CUA) is a private Roman Catholic research university in Washington, D.C. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by U.S. ...

and

Institute of World Politics The Institute of World Politics (IWP) is a private graduate school of national security, intelligence, and international affairs in Washington DC, and Reston, Virginia. Founded in 1990, it offers courses related to intelligence, national securit ...

. Edwards co-founded the

Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) is a non-profit anti-communist organization in the United States, authorized by a unanimous Act of Congress in 1993 for the purpose of "educating Americans about the ideology, history and legacy ...

with

's founder and chairman,

Edwin Feulner Edwin John Feulner Jr. (born August 12, 1941) is a former think tank executive who founded the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation and served as its president from 1977 to 2013 and again from 2017 to 2018. Feulner's positions have in ...

, and was appointed its chairman emeritus. Edwards is a signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.

Personal

He and his wife, Anne, who assists him in all his writing, live in

Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...

. They have two daughters and eleven grandchildren.

References

External links

The Lee Edwards papers
at the Hoover Institution Archives.
with Lee Edwards
by Stephen McKiernan, Binghamton University Libraries Center for the Study of the 1960s * {{DEFAULTSORT:Edwards, Lee 1932 births Living people Catholic University of America alumni Catholic University of America School of Arts and Sciences faculty Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni Georgetown University faculty The Heritage Foundation American anti-communists Illinois Republicans Harvard Kennedy School staff University of Paris alumni Virginia Republicans People from Alexandria, Virginia American expatriates in France