Sean Wilentz is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor of History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979. His biography, The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008, was published in May 2008. He earned one B.A. at Columbia University in 1972, before earning another at Oxford University on a Kellett Fellowship, and his Ph.D. at Yale University in 1980. His historical scholarship has focused on the early years of the American republic. His major study, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, received the Bancroft Prize in 2006 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
