Jay Winik

Jay Winik is one of the nation’s leading public historians, renowned for his gifted and creative approaches to history. He is the author of the classic work, the acclaimed #1 New York Times best-seller April 1865, which was turned into an Emmy-winning TV special on the History Channel watched by some 50 million people. He is also the author of the New York Times best-selling works 1944: FDR and the Year That Changed History and The Great Upheaval. His book On the Brink was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Winik is a pioneer of the genre of writing about key turning points in history as well.

He is a longtime contributor to the Wall Street Journal, and also contributes frequently to the New York Times and National Review. His readers and fans include Presidents George W. Bush, the late George HW Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama, as well as the Chief Justice of the United States, John Roberts, Justices Elena Kagan and Sam Alito and the late Antonin Scalia, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; General David Petraeus; Bob Woodward; and the renowned actor Tom Hanks.

A popular public speaker and frequent television and radio guest, he was the presidential historian for Fox News’s coverage of the last three historic presidential inaugurations, for Donald Trump as well as Barack Obama. He was the historical advisor to the chairman of the National Geographic Networks and to the blockbuster six part documentary series on the 1980s produced by the award-winning Nutopia. He writes a regular blog about professional tennis (Our Court Comments). He has been a trustee or board member of the National Endowment for the Humanities, a presidential appointment, the Veterans History Project, the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, Ford’s Theatre, the Washington Tennis and Education Foundation, the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial commission, American Heritage magazine, the World Affairs Journal, and the Civil War Preservation Trust.

An honors graduate of Yale College, he has an M.Sc (Econ) from the London School of Economics, as well as a PhD from Yale University.

April 1865

1944

The Great Upheaval