Historian / Biographer Speakers

Juan Williams

A prize-winning columnist and former editorial writer for The Washington Post, Juan Williams is also a Fox News correspondent and a keynote speaker on issues including diversity, ethics, leadership, media and national issues. There are few voices as clear and intelligent on the power of diversity within today's ...

Laurence Leamer

A best-selling author and Kennedy expert, Leamer's most recent book is Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger, called by USA Today “a compelling, three-dimensional look at a remarkable human being…truly fantastic.”

Ken Burns

One of the most accomplished filmmakers of his generation, Burns has profiled many aspects of American life, with his Emmy Award-winning series Baseball the most watched series in PBS history. Also known for his films on the Civil War, Jazz, and WWI, he paints an eloquent and moving landscape of America's ...

David Eisenhower

Grandson of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, David is an esteemed political scientist and historian with great insight into American history and the leaders who have shaped it. He is also author of "Eisenhower: At War".

Diane Ravitch

Diane Ravitch is Research Professor of Education at New York University and a historian of education. In addition, she is a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

Michael Beschloss

Deemed "the nation's leading Presidential historian" by Newsweek, Beschloss breathes life into the complexities of the individuals who have led our nation and the history surrounding them. The author of many bestsellers, his most recent is Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America ...

Mary Frances Berry

Former Chairperson of the US Civil Rights Commission, law professor, and esteemed civil rights historian, Berry continually defends the rights of all people with her actions and dedication to equality. From fair housing to equal opportunity to voter's rights, she has been a strong advocate for the disempowered and ...

Clayborne Carson

Stanford University historian Clayborne Carson has devoted most his professional life to the study of Martin Luther King Jr. and the movements King inspired.

David M. Kennedy

A renowned professor of American history at Stanford University, Kennedy is one of America's most versatile historians, offering convention-shattering revelations about 20th Century America. Author of Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War 1929-1945, he is also a frequent contributor to The New York ...

Julian Bond

Beginning with his pivotal role in the Civil Rights Movement, Julian Bond has always been on the cutting edge of social change and leadership. Legendary as the first black US vice presidential nominee and former Chairman of the NAACP, Bond continues to deliver a powerful message of equality, freedom, and justice with a ...

Robert Dallek

Acclaimed historian of the American presidency and author of a landmark biography of President John F. Kennedy.

Robert Blair Kaiser

Robert Blair Kaiser is an American author and journalist, best known for his writings on the Catholic Church. Throughout the Second Vatican Council, Kaiser was Time magazine's reporter in Rome, and the preeminent reporter on the Council in the English-speaking world.

Valerie Hemingway

Hemingway has evoked the magic and the pathos of Papa Hemingway’s last years in Running with the Bulls, published by Ballentine Books in 2006. The account of what she enjoyed, and what she endured, during her astonishing years of living as a Hemingway, Running with the Bulls fully captures the mystique of ...

Andrew Carroll

Carroll is The New York Times best-selling editor of War Letters, Behind the Lines, and Grace Under Fire, collections compiling personal letters from wartime. Presenting some of the most intimate accounts from the frontlines, these books have offered a glimpse into the depths of the human heart, ...

Bing West

A correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, Bing West previously served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs where he was responsible for defense policy around the globe during the Reagan administration. He is an expert on the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as defense, ...

Tony Horwitz

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the bestsellers Confederates in the Attic and Baghdad without a Map, Horwitz chronicles his vicarious voyages throughout the world with good humor and a genuine affection for his subjects. He captures the true spirit of his encounters with the freshness of an outsider's ...

Rick Bragg

Pulitzer Prize winner and former national correspondent for The New York Times, Bragg tells his own story in All Over But the Shoutin', a haunting memoir about growing up dirt-poor in the rural South. His book, Ava's Man resumes his family history, making Bragg the "poster boy of Southern ...

Donald McCaig

Donald McCaig is a critically acclaimed essayist, poet, and novelist. His most recent novel, Rhett Butler’s People, spent 12 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller List. It is a sequel to Gone with the Wind, authorized by the Margaret Mitchell estate. His other novels include Canaan, ...

Geraldine Brooks

Displaying a wide range of talent in her best-selling books March, Year of Wonders and Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Brooks consistently crafts fascinating, meticulously researched fiction and non-fiction, effortlessly bringing her subjects to ...

Mark Kurlansky

A New York Times best-selling author, Kurlansky started on the path toward theater before turning to journalism in the mid '70s. Having reported from all over the globe and having contributed articles to newspapers and magazines nationwide, he is now the James A. Beard Award-winning writer behind such books as ...