Allen Weinstein was named the ninth archivist of the United States in 2005. He oversees the National Archives, whose mission includes enabling people to inspect government documents for themselves. The Archives’ home page posts links to regional archives, research centers and presidential libraries, which local reporters may find helpful for reporting stories on the founders.

Michelle Goldberg is an op-ed columnist for The New York Times. She is also the author of Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, which discusses “dominion theology,” which links Christianity and political governance.

Albert J. Raboteau specializes in African-American religious history at Princeton University.

Vincent Phillip Muñoz teaches religion and and public life at the University of Notre Dame. He focuses on the founders and religious freedom.

Tim LaHaye, co-author of Left Behind, the apocalyptic novel series, also wrote Faith of Our Founding Fathers: A Comprehensive Study of America’s Christian Foundations.

David Barton is an author and founder of WallBuilders, which emphasizes an orthodox Christian biblical interpretation of America’s foundation. The Fort Worth, Texas, area organization uses original source documents for its research.

Richard Brookhiser is a journalist and author of several works about America’s founders including What Would the Founders Do? Our Questions, Their Answers (Basic, 2006). The historical founders are not gods, and yet Americans’ feelings about them today seem more religious than historical, he says.

James H. Hutson is chief of the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress and author of The Founders on Religion: A Book of Quotations (Princeton University Press, 2005). Manuscript Division holdings include a rough draft of the Declaration of Independence in Thomas Jefferson’s own handwriting. Hutson has taught history at the College of William and Mary […]

Gordon S. Wood is a professor of history at Brown University in Providence, R.I., specializing in the American Revolutionary era. He wrote Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different (Penguin Press, 2006). In it he argues that the founders had a clear vision of the life of a nation as a matter of moral progress.