Wilentz studies U.S. social and political history. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses on U.S. history, focusing on the 19th century and has also taught courses on American literature and 20th-century American culture and politics. His major work to date, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln (2005), was awarded the Bancroft Prize and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book The Politicians and the Egalitarians: The Hidden History of American Politics (2016) looks at the commanding role party politics has played in America’s enduring struggle against economic inequality.
Sean Wilentz
George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of American History
