Welcome to American National Biography Online
The life of a nation is told by the lives of its people
- Over 19,000 biographies of significant, influential or notorious figures from American history written by prominent scholars
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What's new
What's new: October 2019
This update features six new biographies, including spies Theodore Hall and David Greenglass; outlaw and Bonnie-and-Clyde associate Blanche Barrow; child psychologist Roger Barker; bacteriologist Pearl Kendrick; and Tarzan cartoonist Burne Hogarth.
Featured
David Greenglass
David Greenglass (1922–2014) was a Cold War-era atomic spy for the Soviet Union. His false testimony in 1951 played a key role in the conviction and death sentences of his sister, Ethel Rosenberg, and her husband, Julius Rosenberg. He later admitted that he lied in order to spare his wife Ruth, who had written out David’s bomb notes by hand. In 2001 he told New York Times reporter Sam Roberts that he wanted to be remembered as “a good father. A good husband. A good son. A good brother. Born in a time which tore people’s souls.”
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