Dr. Earl J. Hess

Dr. Hess has been a student of Civil War history since he was a teenager, growing up in rural Missouri. He completed his B.A. and M.A. degrees in History at Southeast Missouri State University. His Ph.D. in American Studies, with a concentration in History, was awarded by Purdue University in 1986. He has taught at a number of institutions, including the University of Georgia, Texas Tech University, and the University of Arkansas. Since 1989, he has been at Lincoln Memorial University, in Harrogate, Tennessee, where he is Associate Professor of History, director of the History Program, and holds the Stewart McClelland Chair. Dr. Hess has published several books on Civil War history, nineteen journal articles, and more than ninety book reviews for academic history journals, and conducted numerous manuscript evaluations for academic presses. He is widely recognized as a leading scholar and author on Civil War history. Dr. Hess has also published and is working on books on film history.

Dr. James Lander

Dr. Lander was born and raised in California but has spent most of his life in Britain.

He holds degrees from American and British universities in History, Classics and Archaeology, and has taught United States and European History at an American school in England for twenty-five years.

He has published works on archaeology and local history as well as articles in historical journals.

Dan Van Haften

Dan Van Haften lives in Batavia, Illinois. He has BS, with high honor, and MS degrees in mathematics from Michigan State University, and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology. He began his career with ATandT Bell Laboratories in 1970, and retired from Alcatel-Lucent in 2007. His work involved software development and system testing on telecommunication systems.

James Swanson

James L. Swanson is the author of the New York Times bestseller Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer and along with Daniel Weinberg ico-author of Lincoln's Assassins: Their Trial and Execution. He is an attorney who has written about history, the Constitution, popular culture, and other subjects for a variety of publications, including the Wall Street Journal, American Heritage, Smithsonian, and the Los Angeles Times.

Mr. Swanson serves on the advisory council of the Ford's Theatre Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Campaign and is a member of the advisory committee of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.

Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow won the National Book Award in 1990 for his first book, The House of Morgan, and his second book, The Warburgs, won the Eccles Prize as the Best Business Book of 1993. His biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Titan, was a national bestseller and a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.