Paul Chester Nagel (August 14, 1926 – May 22, 2011) was an American historian and biographer who was best known for his works for general readers on the Adams and Lee political families, and who also wrote on the history of his home state of Missouri.
After teaching history for a number of years at the University of Kentucky, he eventually became dean of that school's College of Arts and Sciences.
From 1969 to 1980, he held a tenured chair and was the vice president for academic affairs for the University of Missouri[7] and taught an influential seminar on the Adams Family through MU's highly rated Department of History.
[8] In 1980, Nagel became the director of the Virginia Historical Society, and in 1985 he left that position to spend his time writing works of history and biography for a general readership.
Years later in a 1998 Booknotes interview, he recalled "And Mr. Rusk said to me, when he learned I was going to write about the Adamses--he said, 'There is no question John Quincy Adams is by far our greatest secretary of state.
These documents were contained in 608 rolls of microfilm, and Nagel kept these in his possession until he completed his 1997 biography of John Quincy Adams, at which time he donated them to the Carleton College library.