William A. Link

2004-2022 Richard J. Milbauer Chair in Southern History

2018-19 President of the Southern Historical Association

University of Florida

William A. Link has written extensively about the history of the South, including Paradox of Southern Progressivism (1992), Roots of Secession (2003), Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism (2008), and Atlanta, Cradle of the New South (2013). Mostly recently, he wrote a two-volume history of the South, Southern Crucible (2015). He is currently writing a biography of Frank Porter Graham.

For twenty-three years, Link was a professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, teaching courses in North Carolina history, the history of the American South, and twentieth-century American history.

In 2004, he became the Richard J. Milbauer chair in southern history at the University of Florida, replacing longtime chairholder Bertram Wyatt-Brown. Link retired in 2022, and David Silkenat will become Milbauer Chair in fall 2024.