David S. Painter

David S. Painter (born 1948) is an associate professor of international history at Georgetown University. He is a leading scholar of the Cold War and United States foreign policy during the 20th century, with particular emphasis on their relation to oil.

Painter studied history at King College (BA 1970), Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (BA 1973), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (PhD 1982). In addition to his career in academia, Painter has worked for the Congressional Research Service, the Department of Energy, and the State Department. In 2008, he was a visiting fellow at the Norwegian Nobel Institute. He also serves on the advisory board for H-Energy.

Painter's classic work has turned out to be his very first book: Oil and the American Century, published in 1986. Influenced by the work of Ellis Hawley and others, and operating within a corporatist framework, the study is an "impressively researched monograph that devotes particular attention to the close collaboration between public policy makers and oil company official," a partnership that led to "the evolution of an American foreign oil policy that protected dwindling American domestic reserves, met American security needs, and guaranteed American access to foreign oil." One historian opined that, "if anything proves more remarkable than the ambitious scope of this study, it is the extent to which Painter accomplishes his objectives. [… It] may also be the most important book yet written on America's foreign oil policy." Others described it variously as "exemplary" and "superb". The 1987 UK edition has not been out of print since its original publication.

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