John Shelton Curtiss (July 15, 1899 – December 27, 1983), was an American historian of Russia and historical scholar of old Yankee stock.
After World War II began, Curtiss was called to Washington, D.C. along with other Slavic experts to do classified work in the Research and Analysis Branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
After finishing his wartime work in 1945, he joined the history department at Duke University where he remained for the rest of his career.
[3][4] During World War II, in 1941 and 1942, while Jews were being, or about to be, exterminated by the Nazis in Europe, Curtiss published his 118-page monograph denying the truth and authenticity of the so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion, years before Norman Cohn published his work on the subject, Warrant for Genocide (1967).
In 1940 Curtiss received the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize from the American Historical Association for Church and State in Russia, 1900–1917.