Eugene Burdick

Who was Eugene Burdick?

Eugene Leonard Burdick was an American political scientist, novelist, and non-fiction writer, co-author of The Ugly American, Fail-Safe, and author of The 480.

He was born in Sheldon, Iowa, the son of Marie Ellerbroek and Jack Dale Burdick. His family moved to Los Angeles, California when he was 4. He attended Stanford University and Oxford University, earning a Ph.D. in psychology. He worked at the department of political science at the University of California. In 1956 his first novel, The Ninth Wave, was published. At the close of the 1950s, he was among the first members of the Society for General Systems Research. He died of a heart attack in 1965 at the age of 46.