Joseph J. Ellis

Generally regarded as one of the leading scholars of the Founding Fathers and one of the most successful “cross-over” historians, Joseph Ellis has managed to straddle the gap between the scholarly world and larger public audiences.

Educated at Yale University, he is the author of eight books on American history, the most recent being the American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic.

His in-depth chronicle of the life of our first President, His Excellency: George Washington, was a New York Times bestseller. His previous books Founding Brothers, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and American Sphinx, a National Book Award recipient, were both national bestsellers.

Ellis taught history at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and has, since 1972, taught at Mount Holyoke College. Ellis’s commentaries have been featured on CSPAN, CNN, and the PBS’s The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, and he has appeared in several PBS documentaries on early America.

In addition, Ellis has written reviews and essays for a variety of national publications, including The New York Times, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and The Wall Street Journal. He has conducted seminars for federal judges and federal elected officials on America’s “original intentions” and spoken before corporate boards on the leadership credentials of the founders.