William I. Brustein is Professor Emeritus at West Virginia University, having recently stepped down as Vice President for Global Strategies and International Affairs and Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of History. Previously, he was the Vice Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs at The Ohio State University, as well as the Associate Provost for International Affairs and Director of International Programs and Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Brustein has spent much of his administrative career focused on international education. Brustein is an inaugural member of the National Academy for International Education, the first honorary society and think tank for international education leaders.
Dr. Brustein is widely published in the areas of political extremism and ethnic/religious/racial prejudice. His 1996 book The Logic of Evil: The Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925-1933 was the winner of the 1997 James S. Coleman Distinguished Contribution to Rational-Choice Scholarship from the American Sociological Association. His notable books include The Socialism of Fools? Leftist Origins of Modern Anti-Semitism (Cambridge University Press, 2015), Roots of Hate: Anti-Semitism in Europe Before the Holocaust (Cambridge University Press, 2003); The Logic of Evil: the Social Origins of the Nazi Party, 1925 to 1933 (Yale University Press, 1996); The Social Origins of Political Regionalism: France, 1848-1981 (University of California Press, 1988), and two forthcoming books: Anti-Semitism without Jews, Germany, France, and the U.S.: Phantom Enemies (Palgrave Macmillan, 2024), and A Companion to Global Antisemitism (Wiley Blackwell, 2024).
Brustein was named a Fulbright Fellow (1988-1989) and the McKnight Distinguished University Professor at the University of Minnesota (2000). He was elected to the Sociological Research Association in 1996. He also has been recognized in Marquis Who’s Who in the World, in America, and in American Education. Brustein has also received a Morse Amoco Award for Outstanding Contributions to Higher Education (1993-1994), a University College/Continuing Education Distinguished Teaching award (1996), and admittance into the Academy of Distinguished Teachers (1998), all from the University of Minnesota.