A graduate of Colby College (1977), Alan Taylor received his doctorate in American history from Brandeis University in 1986. He taught at Boston University, 1987–1994; the University of California at Davis, 1994–2014; and the University of Virginia, where he held the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Chair, 2014–2024. His 11 books include William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early Republic (1995) and The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia (2013), both of which won the Pulitzer Prize for American history. In 2022, American Republics: A Continental History of the United States, 1783–1850 won the New York Historical Society’s annual Barbara and David Zalaznick Book Prize in American History. 

His most recent book is American Civil Wars: A Continental History, 1850-1873 (2024). His forthcoming book is Tower Hill: A Plantation on the Edge. In 2002, he won the University of California at Davis Award for Teaching and Scholarly Achievement and the Phi Beta Kappa, Northern California Association, Teach Excellence Award.