Sean Wilentz (IPA: /ˈʃɔːn wɨˈlɛnts/) is the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor of History at Princeton University, where he has taught since 1979.
Born in 1951 in New York City, where his father ran a used bookstore, Wilentz earned one B.A. at Columbia University in 1972, before earning another at Oxford University on a Kellett Fellowship, and his Ph.D. at Yale University in 1980. His historical scholarship has focused on the early years of the American republic. His major study, The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, received the Bancroft Prize in 2006 and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His first book, Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850 (1984, reprinted 2004) argued that class and class relations have played a significant role in 19th century history; it won several awards, including the Beveridge Award from the American Historical Association. He has more recently turned his scholarship to recent U.S. history.
Wilentz has also intervened in contemporary politics as a staunch defender of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. He appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on December 8, 1998 to argue against the Clinton impeachment. His testimony — he told the House members that, if they voted for impeachment but were not convinced Clinton's offenses were impeachable, "history will track you down and condemn you for your cravenness" — cheered Democratic partisans but was criticized by the New York Times, which lamented his "gratuitously patronizing presentation" in an editorial.1
Wilentz has prominently criticized the George W. Bush administration. In 2006 he wrote an article about the George W. Bush presidency, titled "The Worst President in History?" 2 which appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.
In 2008 Wilentz was an outspoken supporter of the of Sen. Hillary Clinton.3 He wrote numerous essays analyzing Sen. Barack Obama's campaign, charging Obama with creating "manipulative illusion[s]" and "distortions," and having "purposefully polluted the [primary electoral] contest" with "the most outrageous deployment of racial politics since the Willie Horton ad campaign in 1988."4 During the Democratic national convention, Wilentz charged in Newsweek that "liberal intellectuals have largely abdicated their responsibility to provide unblinking and rigorous analysis" of Obama. "Hardly any prominent liberal thinkers" have questioned his "rationalizations" about his relationship to his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., or "his patently evasive accounts" of his "ties" to the "unrepentant terrorist William Ayers." For Wilentz, Obama is untested, cloudy, problematic — and liberal intellectuals have given him a free ride.5 Wilentz came under heavy attacks from the intellectual stance for his criticism of Obama.6
His latest book is The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008, published in May 20087.
Wilentz, Sean. "On Class and Politics in Jacksonian America," Reviews in American History, Vol. 10, No. 4, The Promise of American History: Progress and Prospects (Dec., 1982), pp. 45-63 in JSTOR
Wilentz, Sean. "Against Exceptionalism: Class Consciousness and the American Labor Movement, 1790-1920," International Labor and Working Class History, 26 (Fall 1984): 1-24,
Wilentz, Sean. Chants Democratic: New York City and the Rise of the American Working Class, 1788-1850" (1984)
Merrill, Michael, and Sean Wilentz, eds. The Key of Liberty: The Life and Democratic Writings of William Manning, "A Laborer," 1747-1814 (1993)
Altschuler, Glenn C. "Democracy as a Work in Progress," Reviews in American History, Volume 34, Number 2, June 2006, pp. 169-175 in Project Muse, review of The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln
