Andrew Delbanco is Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University and President of The Teagle Foundation. He earned his A.B., A.M., and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. His most recent book, The War Before the War: Fugitive Slaves and the Struggle for America’s Soul from the Revolution to the Civil War (Penguin Press, 2018), was awarded the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Lionel Trilling Award, and the Mark Lynton History Prize. Mr. Delbanco’s essays appear regularly in many periodicals on topics ranging from American literary and religious history to issues in higher education. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. In 2012, Mr. Delbanco was awarded a National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama. In 2022, he delivered the Jefferson Lecture, “the highest honor the federal government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.”