Allan Nevins (May 20, 1890 - March 5, 1971) was an American historian and journalist, renowned for his extensive work on the history of the Civil War and his biographies of such figures as President Grover Cleveland, Hamilton Fish, Henry Ford, and John D. Rockefeller.

Born in Camp Point, Illinois, Nevins was educated at the University of Illinois, where he earned an M.A. in English in 1913. He worked as a journalist in New York City and began writing books on history. In 1929, he joined the history faculty of Columbia University, and in 1931 was named Dewitt Clinton Professor of History there. He was appointed Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University from 1940 to 1941 and again from 1964 to 1965. In 1948 he created the first oral history program to operate on an institutionalized basis in the U.S., which continues as Columbia University's Oral History Research Office. After he retired from Columbia, he relocated to California, where he worked at the Henry E. Huntington Library. He died in Menlo Park, California, in 1971.