Sean Wilentz () is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor of History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979.
Born in 1951 in New York City, Wilentz 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. 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. His first book, Chants Democratic, won several awards, including the Beveridge Award from the American Historical Association. He has more recently turned his scholarship to recent U.S. history. His latest book is The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008.[1]
A contributing editor at The New Republic, Wilentz writes widely on music and the arts as well as history and politics, and has received a Grammy nomination, and a Deems Taylor Award for musical commentary from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Wilentz has also intervened in contemporary politics as a staunch defender of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. He appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on December 81998 to argue against the Clinton impeachment. His testimony — he told the House members that, if they voted for impeachment but were not convinced Clinton's offenses were impeachable, "history will track you down and condemn you for your cravenness" — cheered Democratic partisans but was criticized by the New York Times, which lamented his "gratuitously patronizing presentation" in an editorial.[2]
Wilentz was also a prominent supporter of the presidential candidacy of Sen. Hillary Clinton.[3] He has also written numerous articles analyzing Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, charging Obama with creating "manipulative illusion[s]" and "distortions," and having "purposefully polluted the [primary electoral] contest" with "the most outrageous deployment of racial politics since the Willie Horton ad campaign in 1988." [4]
He has also prominently criticized the George W. Bush administration. In 2006 he wrote an article about the George W. Bush presidency, titled "The Worst President in History?" [5] which appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.
His latest book is The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008, published in May 2008. It is one of the only full-scale accounts of late-twentieth century and early twenty-first century politics by a professional historian. [6]
Wilentz lives in Princeton, New Jersey and is married to University of Chicago historian Christine Stansell.
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