Philip Beidler


Philip Douglas Beidler was an American academic and author. He was a professor of American literature at the University of Alabama, and the author and editor of books on Alabama literature, the Vietnam War, and other topics. For his work on Vietnam writers, he has been called "one of the founding fathers of Vietnam War studies".
Beidler, who was of German and Quaker descent, was born on October 29, 1944, in Adams, Pennsylvania. He did his undergraduate studies at Davidson College. During 1969 and 1970, he served as a lieutenant in an armored cavalry platoon in Vietnam. He received master's and doctoral degrees in English from the University of Virginiathe latter in 1974.
He became a professor at the University of Alabama in the mid-1970s, served as director of graduate studies and as assistant dean, and was awarded the 1999 Burnum Distinguished Faculty Award. He was eventually named the Margaret and William Going Professor of English and, at the time of his death, he was a professor emeritus of English at the University of Alabama.
Beidler suffered from Parkinson's during the last years of his life. He died on April 20, 2022.

Selected publications

Cultural history

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Alabama literature

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