Allan Levine was born and raised in Winnipeg. He attended the University of Manitoba receiving a bachelor of arts (1977) and a certificate in education (1983), and also received a MA (1979) and PhD (1985) in history from the University of Toronto. From 1984 to 2012 he taught history and world issues at St. John’s-Ravenscourt School in Winnipeg.

As of 2021, he has written sixteen books including Details are Unprintable: Wayne Lonergan and the Sensational Café Society Murder (2020); Seeking the Fabled City: The Canadian Jewish Experience (2018) which was longlisted for the RBC Taylor Prize; Toronto: Biography of City (2014); King: William Lyon Mackenzie King: A Life Guided by the Hand of Destiny (2011), which won the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction; and Coming of Age: A History of the Jewish People of Manitoba (2009), which won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award.

For the past ten years, he has written the column “Now & Then” for the Winnipeg Free Press, which looks at the history behind major news issues. His articles and reviews have also appeared in the Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, Maclean’s and Canada’s History magazine, among other publications.

He is married with two married children and four grandchildren.