Alan M. Schom is an American-born writer and biographer, born in Sterling, Illinois, in 1937. He attended Beverly Hills High School and received an A.B. in European History from University of California, Berkeley, a Ph.D at Durham University (England), School of Oriental Studies. He taught French and Modern European History at Southern Connecticut State University and at the University of California, Riverside. He served as the President and Founder of the French Colonial Historical Society (1974–76), and founded its research journal, French Colonial Studies. He was a research fellow at the Hoover Institution in 1984.

His biography of Napoleon Bonaparte (1997) was controversial in its portrayal of Napoleon. A book review published by The International Napoleonic Society stated that, "Schom's Napoleon may be the most hostile book ever written on the French Emperor... a hatchet job;" however, despite its claims that Schom has made many errors of fact in Napoleon, this review does not support these claims with any scholarly apparatus of its own, whereas it must be noted that Schom's book, whatever its shortcomings, is properly annotated. In the biography's Epilogue, Schom stated, "I have attempted to give Napoleon Bonaparte his rightful due."