Historian

<p>Widely considered the leading presidential historian of his generation, Jeffrey Engel connects America’s past with our present, helping our nation find a way forward by bringing history to life with humor and insight. </p><p>Today’s problems are nothing new. The United States has faced wars, pandemics, and political division before. While history is an imperfect guide to enacting a better future, it’s the best guide we have. It’s also a guide both for, and full of, people.

<p>American history is in Gayle Jessup White’s blood. A direct descendant of both Thomas Jefferson and those enslaved at his famous Monticello estate, her story is a real-life version of <i>Roots</i> – a 40-year struggle to prove that her family’s belief about its links to the author of the Declaration of Independence were true. Along the way, she unearthed not only a fascinating family saga, but sharp and searing insights into America’s conflicted past and the unsettled future.

<p>Mark K. Updegrove is an author, historian, and the president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation. He previously served as the inaugural CEO of the National Medal of Honor Museum, to be built along the Charleston harbor in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, and as the director of the LBJ Presidential Library in Austin, Texas from 2009 through February 2017.</p><p>Updegrove’s accomplishments as the LBJ Library director include supervising a $11 million redesign of the library’s core exhibits, which resulted in significant increases in the library’s visitorship.

<p>Ken Burns has been making documentary films for over forty years.</p><p>Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including <i>The Civil War</i>; <i>Baseball</i>; <i>Jazz</i>; <i>The Statue of Liberty</i>; <i>Huey Long</i>; <i>Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery</i>; <i>Frank Lloyd Wright</i>; <i>Mark Twain</i>; <i>Unforgivable Black

Michael Beschloss is an award-winning historian and the author of eight books, including the acclaimed New York Times best-sellers "The Conquerors: Roosevelt, Truman and the Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1941-1945" and "Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson's Secret White House Tapes, 1964-1965".

<p>Richard Norton Smith is a celebrated historian and author, and ABC News' presidential historian. His numerous books have received critical acclaim, with his 1997 biography, "The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick," winning the prestigious Goldsmith Prize from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.</p>