Sean Wilentz
Sean Wilentz is an American historian and professor at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979. He holds the George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History chair and studies U.S. social, civic, and political history in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a focus on class and race in the early United States.
Born on February 20, 1951, in New York City, Wilentz grew up in Brooklyn. His father and uncle owned the Eighth Street Bookshop, a well-known Greenwich Village bookstore. He is of Irish and Jewish ancestry. He earned a BA from Columbia University in 1972, another BA from Balliol College, Oxford in 1974, an MA from Yale in 1975, and a PhD from Yale in 1980.
Wilentz has written several award-winning books. The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln won the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He also wrote The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974–2008, and has co-authored works on 19th-century religion and working-class life. In 2010 he published Bob Dylan In America, placing Dylan in the context of American history and culture, and he contributed liner notes that earned a Grammy nomination and an ASCAP award.
As a teacher at Princeton, Wilentz advised Elena Kagan on her senior thesis. He has been active in public debates, criticizing Supreme Court decisions and commenting on American politics. He wrote for Rolling Stone on the Bush and Obama presidencies, spoke before Congress in 1998 about Clinton’s impeachment, and commented on issues like the 1619 Project and the Trump administration. He has also spoken out about national security and civil liberties, including views on NSA leaks and government power.
Wilentz lives in Princeton, New Jersey, with his wife Caroline Cleaves and has two children from his first marriage to historian Christine Stansell. He remains involved with Princeton athletics as a Tigers baseball fellow.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 21:49 (CET).