Peter Robert Edwin Viereck was born in New York City. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1937 with a B.S. in history and literature. He did graduate work on a Henry fellowship at Christ Church, Oxford University, and returned to Harvard to earn an M.A. in 1939 and a Ph.D. in 1942, both in history. During World War II, he served with the U.S. Army Psychological Warfare Branch in Africa and Italy, where he analyzed radio propaganda, including Ezra Pound's anti-American broadcasts. In Rome in 1945, he met and married Anya de Markov, the daughter of Russian immigrants. They had two children and were divorced in 1970. In 1972, Viereck married Betty Martin Falkenberg.

In 1946, Viereck began a teaching career in history, first at Harvard, then at Smith College, and since 1948 at Mount Holyoke College, where he currently holds the William R. Kenan chair as professor of...