Jeffrey Burton Russell (1 August 1934 – 12 April 2023) was an American historian of medieval Europe and religious studies scholar.
Russell held a number of academic posts, moving to the History Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara until his retirement.
He taught History and Religious Studies at Berkeley, Riverside, California State University, Sacramento, Harvard, New Mexico, and Notre Dame.
As one writer summarizes, "Russell also examined a large selection of textbooks and found those written before 1870 usually included the correct account, but most textbooks written after 1880 uncritically repeated the erroneous claims in Washington Irving, John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White.
Russell concludes that Irving, Draper and White were the main writers responsible for introducing the erroneous flat-earth myth that is still with us today."