Annual Meeting May 2019

Professor Wilentz's primary research interests include U.S. social and political history. He has written numerous award-winning books and articles including, most notably, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, which was awarded the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His work on slavery was the basis for his book No Property in Man, a radical reconstruction of the founders’ debate over slavery and the Constitution in which the founders abided slavery without legitimizing it. A contributing editor to The New Republic and a member of the editorial boards of Dissent and Democracy, Professor Wilentz lectures frequently and has written some three hundred articles, reviews, and op-ed pieces for publications such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Review of Books, the London Review of Books, the American Scholar, and The Nation. He earned a B.A. at Columbia University and also at Oxford University (Balliol College), and an M.A. and Ph.D. at Yale University. Professor Wilentz is currently on sabbatical from Princeton University, returning this autumn.