Stanley Ira Kutler (August 10, 1934 – April 7, 2015) was an American historian, best known for his lawsuit against the National Archives and Richard Nixon that won the release of tape recordings Nixon made during his White House years, particularly those in relation to the Watergate scandal.

[8][9][10] In 2009, Kutler was accused of errors in editing and transcribing the tapes, which resulted in White House counsel John Dean being portrayed in a more favorable light than was warranted.

[11][12] In 2013, the final chronological installment containing 340 hours of those conversations was posted online by the National Archives and Records Administration.

His other major books include The Wars of Watergate (Knopf, 1990); The American Inquisition (Hill & Wang, 1982), winner of the Silver Gavel Award, American Bar Association, 1983; Privilege and Creative Destruction: The Charles River Bridge Case (Norton, 1978; revised edition, 1989).

[15] Kutler has been a Guggenheim Fellow, holder of the Garibaldi Chair in Political Science, University of Bologna, 1991, Distinguished Exchange Scholar (National Science Foundation) for China in 1982, and Fulbright 40th Anniversary Distinguished Lecturer, Peru, in 1987, Bicentennial Professor, Tel Aviv University, Israel, in 1984, and Fulbright Lecturer, Japan, 1977.