William Wilhartz Freehling (born December 26, 1935) is an American historian, and Singletary Professor of the Humanities Emeritus at the University of Kentucky.
[2] He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1958.
He wrote his undergraduate honors thesis under noted U.S. historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.
in 1959 and his Ph.D. in 1964, from the University of California, Berkeley, with historian Kenneth M. Stampp serving as his dissertation supervisor.
His most notable book, Prelude to Civil War: The Nullification Controversy in South Carolina, won the 1967 Bancroft Prize.