Robert C. Williams is Professor of History, Dean of the Faculty, and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. He received his Ph.D. in History from Harvard University and has taught at Williams College and Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of six books and numerous articles in modern Russian history and the history of nuclear energy, and the recipient of fellowship awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Philosophical Society, and the George F. Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies. He has also served as a Phi Beta Kappa Associates lecturer and on the editorial board of the Slavic Review.