David Hackett Fischer is renowned as one of America's most gifted historians. He is University Professor at Brandeis University, and was Harmsworth Professor at Oxford (1985-86), Fulbright Lecturer in New Zealand (1994), DeClare Lecturer at Otago University (1995), and Distinguished Scholar at Waikato University in New Zealand (1995).

He is the author of such acclaimed volumes as Albion's Seed, The Great Wave and Paul Revere's Ride (a New York Times Notable Book in 1994).