Alan Taylor, Thomas Jefferson Foundation Chair, Emeritus, Department of History, at the University of Virginia, received his doctorate in American History from Brandeis University. After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute of Early American History and Culture, he taught at Boston University, the University of California at Davis, and the University of Virginia, where he held the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Chair until 2024. Taylor has published eleven books, including William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early Republic, (1995) (winner of the Bancroft, Beveridge, and Pulitzer Prizes); The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia (2013) (winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the Merle Curti Prize for Social History); and American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 (2016). For many years, Taylor served as the faculty advisor for the California State Social Science and History Project, which provides curriculum support and professional development for K-12 teachers.