Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky
Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky is a historian of the presidency, political culture, and the government. She is the Executive Director of the George Washington Presidential Library. Her research can be found in publications from op-eds to books, speaking on podcasts and other media, and teaching for every kind of audience. Dr. Chervinsky’s book, The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution, was published on April 7, 2020 (paperback February 2022). She also co-edited Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture (February 20, 2023). She is a regular guest on podcasts and appears frequently on the Listening to America podcast. She is the creator of the Audible course: The Best and Worst Presidential Cabinets in U.S. History. Her newest book, Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents that Forged the Republic, was published on September 5, 2024.
Books: Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic (2024);
Mourning the Presidents: Loss and Legacy in American Culture (2023);
The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution (2020);
Dr. John Ferling:
John Ferling is the author of several books on the American Revolution and the Early American Republic, including Winning Independence: The Decisive Years of the Revolutionary War, published this year by Bloomsbury Press. Ferling’s books on the American Revolution include Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson and the American Revolution (2000); Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence (2007); Independence: The Struggle to Set America Free (2011); and Whirlwind: The American Revolution and the War That Won It (2015). He has also authored biographies of George Washington and John Adams, and a study of the lives and philosophies of Jefferson and Hamilton. The Adams biography is John Adams: A Life (1992) and remains available in a paperback edition. Whirlwind was a 2015 finalist for the Kirkus Prize. Almost A Miracle and A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic (2003) won prizes as the best books of the year on the American Revolution era. He had a forty year teaching career, most of it at the University of West Georgia in suburban Atlanta. He retired from teaching in 2004 in order to have more time for writing. He has appeared on National Public Radio, in several television documentaries, and he has been a guest on C-Span’s “Booknotes,” “Q&A,” and “In Depth” programs. He and his wife, Carol, live in metropolitan Atlanta.
Books: John Adams: A Life (1992);
Adams vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800 (2005);
Setting the World Ablaze: Washington, Adams, Jefferson and the American Revolution (2000);
Almost a Miracle: The American Victory in the War of Independence (2007);
Whirlwind: The American Revolution and the War That Won It (2015);
A Leap in the Dark: The Struggle to Create the American Republic (2003);
Dr. Marianne Holdzkom:
Marianne Holdzkom has been fascinated with John Adams since the Bicentennial, when she saw the musical 1776. Her expertise in drama and history animates her teaching and her scholarship. She is an associate professor of history at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia, where she specializes in the colonial and revolutionary periods of United States history. Her book, Remembering John Adams, offers the first comprehensive overview of our second president’s place in memory and popular culture. She has further disseminated the story of this underappreciated founding father through podcasts, interviews, public lectures, and her Facebook page.
Books: Remembering John Adams: The Second President in History, Memory and Popular Culture (2023)
Dr. Brooks D. Simpson:
Brooks D. Simpson is ASU Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University. He writes and speaks on American political and military history, especially during the era of the American Civil War and Reconstruction, as well as the American presidency: he is most recognized for his scholarship about Ulysses S. Grant. Among his books is The Political Education of Henry Adams (1996); he has spoken several times on C-SPAN about the Adams family heritage through the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
Books: The Political Education of Henry Adams (1996)
Dr. Randall B. Woods:
Woods received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972. He has been employed continuously as a faculty member at the University of Arkansas since 1971 being promoted from Instructor to Distinguished Professor. He has served as both Associate Dean and Dean of Fulbright College. Courses taught focus on U.S. Diplomatic and Political History. He has severed as president of both the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and has been a visiting distinguished professor at both Williams College and the University of Oxford. He is the author of ten books, including Fulbright: A Biography, LBJ: Architect of American Ambition, Shadow Warrior: William E. Colby and the CIA, and most recently John Quincy Adams: A Man for the Whole People published by Penguin/Random House this past June. Both Fulbright and LBJ were nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. LBJ and Shadow Warrior were New York Times editors’ choices. He is married with two children and four grandchildren and resides in Fayetteville, AR.