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Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies, Columbia University, and president of the Teagle Foundation. Interests in American history, literature, religion.  Teaches and writes on such subjects as the history of American education, colonial and classic American literature, and American culture past and present. His literary and social critiques have appeared frequently in The New York Review of Books, The New Republic, The Nation, The New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. Author, The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America's Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War; College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be; Melville: His World and Work; Required Reading: Why our American Classics Matter Now; The Death of Satan; The Puritan Ordeal; and The Real American Dream. Formerly Vice President, PEN American Center. Trustee of the Teagle Foundation and the Library of America.  Emeritus trustee, National Humanities Center. Member, American Philosophical Society, Winner of the Great Teacher Award from the Society of Columbia Graduates, Recipient of the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama, 2011, Jefferson Lecturer, 2022.