Allen Weinstein
Allen Weinstein (September 1, 1937 – June 18, 2015) was an American historian, educator, author, and federal official who served as the ninth Archivist of the United States from 2005 to 2008.[1][2] Specializing in Cold War-era American history and espionage, he authored influential works examining Soviet infiltration of U.S. institutions.[3] Weinstein's seminal 1978 book, Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case, drew on thousands of FBI documents and other primary sources to argue that State Department official Alger Hiss had lied under oath about his Communist Party membership and transmission of classified documents to Whittaker Chambers for relay to Soviet agents.[3] The work, revised in 1997, shifted scholarly consensus toward Hiss's guilt despite persistent defenses from some quarters, and later corroborated by declassified intelligence like the Venona project—though Weinstein's analysis predated much of that release.[3] He also co-authored The Haunted Wood (1999), detailing Soviet espionage operations in America based on KGB archives.[2] Throughout his career, Weinstein held professorships at institutions including Smith College (1966–1981), Georgetown University (1981–1984), and Boston University (1985–1989), while advancing democratic initiatives as president of the Center for Democracy (1985–2003) and co-founder of the National Endowment for Democracy (1983).[2][1] In his Archivist role, he led the National Archives and Records Administration, overseeing preservation of federal records, though his appointment drew criticism from archival professionals wary of his independent scholarly background.[2] Weinstein resigned in 2008 citing health concerns, succumbing to pneumonia amid Parkinson's disease in 2015.[1][3]