Michael Kazin

Kazin is an esteemed academic historian of American social and political movements, as well as a prominent public intellectual whose prolific and insightful commentaries, opinion pieces, reviews, and media appearances have contributed greatly to the national political debate. While he is often thought of as a left-leaning historian, copies of his widely-respected books The Populist Persuasion: An American History (2017) and  A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan (2007) were kept by President George W. Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, on his White House desk, and Rove sought Kazin out for lunch at the White House, to discuss history with him.