Center for a New American Security

Michael Beschloss is an award-winning historian of the Presidency and author of many books, including his most recent work, Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989.  Newsweek has called Beschloss "the nation's leading Presidential historian." He is a regular commentator on PBS's The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer and a contributor to ABC News.

Beschloss was born in Chicago on November 30, 1955. He is an alumnus of Eaglebrook School, Andover, Williams College and Harvard University. He has been an historian on the staff of the Smithsonian Institution (1982-1986), a Senior Associate Member at Oxford University in England (1986-1987), and a Senior Fellow of the Annenberg Foundation in Washington, D.C. (1988-1996).

Beschloss holds two honorary doctorates. He is a trustee of the White House Historical Association, the National Archives Foundation, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello), the Urban Institute, and the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs. He lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife Afsaneh and their two sons.