Sarah Purcell is an American historian. She is the L.F. Parker Professor of History at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.
Purcell did a history BA at Grinnell College in 1992,[1][2] and an AM and PhD at Brown University, in 1993 and 1997 respectively. She taught at Central Michigan University until 2000, when she went to Grinnell. She has specialised in American history, particularly Civil War and military topics.[3]