Julian Emanuel Zelizer (born 1969) is an American professor of

political history Political history is the narrative and survey of political events, ideas, movements, organs of government, voters, parties and leaders. It is closely related to other fields of history, including diplomatic history, constitutional history, soci ...

and author at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

. Zelizer focuses on the second half of the twentieth century and the twenty-first century, and has authored or co-authored several books about American political history.

Education

Raised in

Metuchen, New Jersey Metuchen ( ) is a suburban Borough (New Jersey), borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan River, Raritan Valle ...

, Zelizer was educated at

Metuchen High School Metuchen High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Metuchen in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the lone secondary school of the Met ...

, a comprehensive public high school, followed by

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

. He obtained a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

in History from

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

Life and career

Zelizer has contributed to

CNN.com Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable new ...

and ''The Atlantic''. He is a regular commentator on news programs and has appeared in several documentary films. He penned the introduction to a 2016 edition of the

Kerner report The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission after its chair, Governor Otto Kerner Jr. of Illinois, was an 11-member Presidential Commission established in July 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson in to ...

. He is the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Professor of History and Public Policy. He has twice won the D. B. Hardeman Prize, for ''Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945–1975'' and ''The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society''. ''Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974'', co-authored with Kevin M. Kruse, received wide critical acclaim. Zelizer's book, ''Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party,'' was called "insightful" by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', which also recognized it as one of the "100 Notable Books of 2020". ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' wrote that it was "engaging" and "timely". In 2025, Zelizer began a

Substack Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription-based content, including newsletters, podcasts, and video. It allows writers to send digital content directl ...

publication online that is entitled,
The Long View
', and is intended to provide a historical perspective to breaking news that enables free and paid subscribers to gain a better understanding of current events.

Personal life

Zelizer is the son of the Princeton sociologist Viviana Zelizer and Gerald L. Zelizer, a notable Metuchen

rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

. In 1996, he married Nora Kay Moran at Congregation Adas Israel in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, presided over by his father. In 2012, he married fellow historian

Meg Jacobs Meg Jacobs is a historian of U.S. political history and political economy. She is a Senior Research Scholar at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and in the Department of History at Princeton University. Academics Jacobs g ...

at the Synagogue for the Arts in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, again presided over by his father.

Books

* ''Taxing America: Wilbur D. Mills, Congress, and the State, 1945–1975'' (1999)

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press was the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted a letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it was the oldest university press in the world. Cambridge University Press merged with Cambridge Assessme ...

. * ''The American Congress: The Building of Democracy'' (2004), Mariner Books. * ''On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and its Consequences, 1948–2000'' (2004) Cambridge University Press * ''Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security – From World War II to the War on Terrorism'' (2009)

Basic Books Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1950 and located in New York City, now an imprint of Hachette Book Group. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and his ...

* ''Jimmy Carter: The American Presidents Series: The 39th President, 1977–1981'' (2010) Times Books * ''Conservatives in Power: The Reagan Years, 1981–1989: A Brief History with Documents'' (2011), with

Bedford/St. Martin's * ''Governing America: The Revival of Political History'' (2012)

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

* ''The Fierce Urgency of Now: Lyndon Johnson, Congress, and the Battle for the Great Society'' (2015) * ''Media Nation: The Political History of News in Modern America'' (2017), editor, with Bruce J. Schulman * ''The Presidency of Barack Obama: A First Historical Assessment'' (2018), editor * ''Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974'' (2019), with Kevin M. Kruse * ''Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party '' (2020) * ''Abraham Joshua Heschel: A Life of Radical Amazement'' (2021) * ''Defining the Age: Daniel Bell, His Time and Ours'' (2022), editor * ''The Presidency of Donald J. Trump: A First Historical Assessment'' (2022), editor * ''

Myth America ''Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past'' is a book of essays by 20 leading historians and other academics debunking popular beliefs regarding events in American history, as well as more contemporary issues. ...

: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past'' (2023), editor * ''In Defense of Partisanship'' (2025)

Columbia Global Reports Columbia Global Reports (CGR) is a non-profit publishing imprint founded in 2015 by Columbia University and led by Nicholas Lemann, the emeritus dean of Columbia's journalism school. Created as part of a wider globalization initiative, it is affil ...

In addition to authoring the books listed above, Zelizer has edited or co-edited a number of books including, most recently, ''Our Nation at Risk: Election Integrity as a National Security Issue''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zelizer, Julian E. American political historians 20th-century American historians 21st-century American historians Historians of the United States Historians of the United States Congress Jewish American historians Historians from New Jersey Princeton University faculty CNN people Brandeis University alumni Johns Hopkins University alumni Metuchen High School alumni People from Metuchen, New Jersey American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers 20th-century American male writers Living people 1969 births