Step away from the grill: Bestselling historian Joseph Ellis says we’re celebrating our nation’s independence on the wrong day. How history screwed up the date.
Joseph J. Ellis (b 1943) was educated at the College of William and Mary (B.A.) and Yale University (M.A., Ph.D.). Since 1972 he has taught courses in American history at Mount Holyoke College, where he also served as Dean of Faculty for ten years and Acting President (1983-84). He recently retired from his position as the Ford Foundation Professor of History Emeritus.
He has published ten books, most on some aspect of the American founding. His American Sphinx on Thomas Jefferson won the National Book Award. Founding Brothers won the Pulitzer Prize. His commentaries have appeared on C-SPAN, CNN, PBS, and NPR. His reviews and essays have appeared in The New York Times The Wall Street Journal and The Chicago Tribune, among others. He has conducted seminars for federal judges on the doctrine of “original intent” and delivers public lectures before
academic, corporate, and civic audiences on a regular basis.
He regularly offers courses on The Revolutionary Generation, American Foreign Policy, Jefferson and his Legacy, Great Debates in American History, Reading the American Revolution and The History of Prophecy. He is the recipient of the Kidger Prize by the New England History Teachers Association for his body of work as a teacher and writer of American history.
Mr. Ellis lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with his wife, Ellen Wilkins Ellis and their son, Alexander. Two older sons, Peter and Scott, have escaped the nest. He is an avid fan of the Red Sox, Celtics, and Patriots.