CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Paul A. Rahe

American historian and writer (born 1948)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 2, 2026
Entity authorityQ28113186 ↗
Source-derived summary

Paul Anthony Rahe (born December 18, 1948) is an American classicist, historian, writer and professor of history at Hillsdale College. He taught at Yale University, Cornell University, Franklin and Marshall College, and the University of Tulsa before taking up his present position.

Rahe comments with some frequency on political matters and blogs with some regularity for Ricochet.

Biography

Rahe received a B.A. in history from Yale University in 1971, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. He then read Literae Humaniores at Wadham College, Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship, receiving a B.A. in 1974. He received his PhD in history at Yale University in 1977. His political positions are conservative. In 2016, he referred to Republican nominee Donald Trump as a "slimeball," but endorsed him for president nonetheless because of his revulsion at Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's "depravity". In 2020, he unreservedly endorsed Donald Trump for president. He is married to Laura Rahe, a lawyer and the author of a book on courtship and marriage.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Paul A. Rahe” as american historian and writer (born 1948). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Paul, Rahe and American.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1948, 1971, 1974, 1977—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1948-12-18. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Paul, Rahe and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Paul A. Rahe”, the useful work is to connect “american historian and writer (born 1948)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q28113186. VIAF identifies the subject as 14942564. The Library of Congress control number is n87823827. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1948, 1971, 1974 and 1977.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Paul A. Rahe”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Paul A. Rahe primary sources, Paul A. Rahe archive and Paul research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Paul A. Rahe”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Paul A. Rahe” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.