Dr. Ellis makes his annual visit with students at Amherst to celebrate the Fourth of July
A sample of what our students had to say after their visit with Joe Ellis:
"Joe Ellis makes me appreciate America”
"Informative, interesting, and engaging.”
Dr. Joseph John Ellis is one of the nation’s foremost scholars of American history. He is the author of eight books, including bestsellers American Sphinx, which won the National Book Award in 1997; Founding Brothers: the Revolutionary Generation, which received the Pulitzer Prize in history in 2000; and His Excellency: George Washington. His book, American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic is a study of political creativity in the founding era and his most recent title, First Family: Abigail and John Adams, is drawn from over 1200 letters exchanged between the couple and brings their story to life against the backdrop of the Republic’s tenuous early years.
Ellis’s commentaries have been featured on CSPAN, CNN, and PBS’s Lehrer News Hour. He has appeared in several documentaries on early America, including “John and Abigail [Adams]” for PBS’s The American Experience and a History Channel documentary on George Washington. His essays and book reviews appear regularly in national publications, such as The New York Times, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. In addition to frequent public lectures throughout the United States, Ellis conducts seminars for federal judges with Professor Gordon Wood of Brown on “The Founders and Original Intent.”
Ellis received his B.A. from the College of William and Mary, where he was initiated into Theta Delta Chi. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University in 1969. He served in the United States Army and also taught at West Point until 1972. He is the Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College where he has served since 1972.