Editing Joseph Ellis

{{Short description|American historian (born 1943)}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2013}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name             = Joseph Ellis
| image            = Joseph J. Ellis (26639385683) (cropped).jpg
| imagesize        = 
| caption          = Ellis in 2016
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_name       = Joseph John Ellis
| birth_date       = {{birth date and age|mf=yes|1943|7|18}}
| birth_place      = [[Alexandria, Virginia]], U.S.
| death_date       = 
| death_place      = 
| occupation       = Professor, writer
| genre            = History
| subject          = Early American history
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = ''[[Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation]]''
| influences       = 
| influenced       = 
| website          = {{URL|http://www.josephellishistorian.com}}
| footnotes        = 
| education        = [[College of William and Mary]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])<br />[[Yale University]] ([[Master of Arts|MA]], [[PhD]])
}}

'''Joseph John-Michael Ellis III''' (born July 18, 1943) is an American historian whose work focuses on the lives and times of the [[Founding Fathers of the United States]].  His book ''[[American Sphinx|American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson]]'' won a [[National Book Award]] in 1997<ref name=nba1997>[https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1997 "National Book Awards – 1997"]. [[National Book Foundation]]. Retrieved 2012-03-24. <br />(With acceptance speech by Ellis.)</ref> and ''[[Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation]]'' won the 2001 [[Pulitzer Prize for History]].<ref name=pulitzer>[http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/History "History"]. ''Past winners & finalists by category''. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved March 24, 2012.</ref> Both books were [[bestseller]]s.<ref name="Wood">{{cite news | first=Gordon| last=Wood| url=http://www.powells.com/review/2004_12_16| title= His Excellency (''New Republic'' book review)| work=The New Republic (carried at powells.com)| date= December 16, 2004| access-date=August 4, 2006}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Ellis was born in [[Alexandria, Virginia]], on July 18, 1943. He received his [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] from the [[College of William and Mary]], where he was initiated into [[Theta Delta Chi]]. He earned his [[Master of Arts|M.A.]] and [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] from [[Yale University]] in 1969,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Dissertations by Year, 1960–1969 {{!}} Department of History|url=https://history.yale.edu/academics/graduate-program/dissertations-year/dissertations-year-1960-1969|access-date=December 28, 2021|website=history.yale.edu}}</ref> where [[Edmund Morgan (historian)|Edmund S. Morgan]] directed his dissertation on a colonial American theologian.<ref>Ellis, Joseph John III. "The Puritan Mind in Transition: The American Samuel Johnson (1696–1772)." Ph.D. diss. Yale University Dept. of History, 1969.</ref><ref>It was published as Joseph J. Ellis, '' The New England Mind in Transition: Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, 1696-1772'' (Yale Univ. Press, 1973); this was an American theologian; he was not related to the famous English writer [[Samuel Johnson]].</ref> At William and Mary, Ellis was in [[ROTC]].

==Career==
Ellis entered the [[United States Army]] in August 1969 and spent three years teaching history at the [[United States Military Academy at West Point]] before being discharged a captain in 1972.<ref name="LaT6192001">{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jun-19-mn-12182-story.html |title=Top Historian Becomes Tangled in Fictions |last=Mehren |first=Elizabeth |date=June 19, 2001 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |access-date=August 22, 2019}}</ref> Ellis later joined the faculty at [[Mount Holyoke College]]. In 1979, he was made full professor and later became the [[Ford Foundation]] Professor of History. He has also taught at [[Williams College]] and in the Commonwealth Honors College at the [[University of Massachusetts]].  His scholarly work has concentrated on the [[Founding Fathers of the United States]], including biographies of [[John Adams]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], and [[George Washington]], the [[American Revolution]], and the history of the [[Federalist Era]], which lasted from 1788 to 1800.

Ellis served as dean of faculty at [[Mount Holyoke College]] in [[South Hadley, Massachusetts]] from 1980 to 1990; following that, he was named by the trustees to the endowed [[Ford Foundation]] Chair in history.<ref name="Trustees"/> For part of 1984, he also served as the college's acting president while president [[Elizabeth Topham Kennan]] was on leave. Ellis was suspended without pay in 2001 after falsely telling his students that he had fought in the [[Vietnam War]]; he was reappointed to the chair four years later, in 2005.<ref name="Trustees">{{cite journal|url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/052005/chairs.shtml|title=Trustees Name Four Faculty Members to Endowed Chairs|journal=College Street Journal|publisher=Mount Holyoke College|date=May 20, 2005|access-date=February 16, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011213551/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/052005/chairs.shtml|archive-date=October 11, 2012|df=mdy-all}}</ref> Ellis retired from Mount Holyoke in 2012.

===Presidential biographies===
Together with histories of the founding of the republic, since 1993 Ellis has written biographies about individual early presidents and, in 2010, a joint biography of John and Abigail Adams. Interested in how men shaped and were shaped by their times, he writes with a novelist's emphasis on character.  Ellis is notable as a respected scholar whose work has also gained popular success; his biography of Jefferson and work on the Founding Fathers have been bestsellers, attaining sales of hundreds of thousands of copies.<ref name="Wood"/> In 2004, the critic [[Jonathan Yardley]] wrote of him: "Ellis doubtless is now the most widely read scholar of the Revolutionary period, and thus probably the most influential as well—at least among the general public..."<ref name="Yardley">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7794-2004Oct28.html|title=His Excellency, George Washington|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=October 28, 2004|last=Yardley|first=Jonathan|access-date=February 16, 2012}}</ref>

====John Adams====
As a result of his research, Ellis believed that [[John Adams]] was underappreciated as the nation's second president; he worked to reveal the man's contributions and character. His book, ''Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams,'' led to a revival of interest in Adams and new appreciation for his achievements.<ref>[http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/49975-1/Joseph+Ellis.aspx Interview with Ellis on ''Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111115124121/http://booknotes.org/Watch/49975-1/Joseph+Ellis.aspx |date=November 15, 2011 }}, ''Booknotes,'' September 5, 1993, accessed February 16, 2012</ref>

====Thomas Jefferson====
{{main|American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson}}
In his book ''American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson'' (1996), Ellis explored the character and personality of Jefferson, and his many contradictions.  He emphasized how important privacy was to him, and how the president and statesman preferred to work behind the scenes in politics, through letters, meetings and discussions over dinners. Ellis noted Jefferson's success in this style.

In relation to one of the major questions about his private life, whether Jefferson had a liaison with his slave [[Sally Hemings]], Ellis suggested that evidence was "inconclusive." His deep analysis of Jefferson's character led him to conclude that the statesman did not have the liaison.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/vista/0002/ellis.shtml| title=Joseph Ellis: Putting History in Perspective| publisher=mountholyoke.edu| year=2000| access-date=2006-08-04| archive-date=March 15, 2007| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070315001103/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/vista/0002/ellis.shtml| url-status=dead}}</ref> Specifically, Ellis says in the appendix to ''American Sphinx:''
<blockquote>Unless the trustees of the [[Thomas Jefferson Foundation|Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation]] decide to exhume the remains and do [[DNA testing]] on Jefferson as well as some of his alleged progeny, it leaves the matter a mystery about which advocates on either side can freely speculate... This means that for those who demand an answer the only recourse is plausible conjecture, prefaced as it must be with profuse statements about the flimsy and wholly circumstantial character of the evidence. In that spirit, which we might call the spirit of responsible speculation, after five years mulling over the huge cache of evidence that does exist on the thought and character of the historical Jefferson, I have concluded that the likelihood of a liaison with Sally Hemings is remote.<ref>{{cite news | first= Joseph | last= Ellis | url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/cron/1996sphinx.html| title="Appendix:Note on the Sally Hemings Scandal" From "American Sphinx", pp.303-307| publisher=pbs.org|year=1996| access-date=2006-08-04}}</ref></blockquote>

{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?114618-1/american-sphinx-thomas-jefferson ''Washington Journal'' interview with Ellis about DNA evidence identifying Thomas Jefferson as the father of one of Sally Hemmings's children, November 7, 1998], [[C-SPAN]]}}
On November 5, 1998, Dr. Eugene Foster and his team published the results of [[Y-DNA]] analysis of Jefferson male-line descendants (he had no known male descendants but Y-DNA is passed on virtually unchanged through direct male-line descendants) and descendants of others reputed to be associated with him. Foster reported that DNA results showed a match between the Jefferson male line and the descendant of [[Eston Hemings]]. Given that and other historical evidence, they concluded that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Eston and probably of Sally Hemings' other children.<ref name="PBS">{{cite news | url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/cron/| title=Frontline: Jefferson's Blood: The History of a Story| access-date=2006-08-04}}</ref> The study showed no match between the Carr line, named by two of Jefferson's grandchildren as the father(s) of Hemings' children, and the Eston Hemings descendant, disproving the major alternative to Thomas Jefferson as father.<ref name="PBS"/>

In interviews on ''[[The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer]]'' in November 1998 and Frontline's ''Jefferson's Blood'' in 2000, Ellis made public statements about his change of opinion following the DNA studies, saying he believed that Jefferson had a long-term relationship with Sally Hemings.<ref name="Newshour">{{cite news|url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/july-dec98/jefferson_11-2.html |title=Online Newshour: Thomas Jefferson |publisher=[[PBS]] |date=November 2, 1998 |quote=It's not so much a change of heart, but this is really new evidence. And it—prior to this evidence, I think it was a very difficult case to know and circumstantial on both sides, and, in part, because I got it wrong, I think I want to step forward and say this new evidence constitutes, well, evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that Jefferson had a longstanding sexual relationship with Sally Hemings.  Even though the match is only with one of the Hemings' descendants, Eston Hemings, it's inconceivable that Jefferson, who was 65 when Eston was born, would have made a one-night stand here. I think this is a longstanding relationship. When it began and what the character of the relationship is we probably can't know easily or at all. But it was, without question, an enduring one. |access-date=August 4, 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060502081313/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/white_house/july-dec98/jefferson_11-2.html |archive-date=May 2, 2006 }}</ref><ref name="ellisfront">[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/interviews/ellis.html "Interview: Joseph Ellis"], ''Jefferson's Blood'', 2000, PBS-Frontline, Quote: "We don't know for sure when Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings started. The DNA testing that has been done was done on the Eston Hemings line. Eston was born in 1805. It does seem that Jefferson had a long-term relationship with Sally Hemings."</ref>

===George Washington===
{{main|His Excellency: George Washington}}

In ''[[His Excellency: George Washington]]'' (2004), Ellis sought to penetrate myth and examine Washington during three major periods of his life.  Ellis described how Washington's experiences in earlier leadership contributed to his actions and development as president.  Ellis wrote that "we do not need another epic [Washington biography], but rather a fresh portrait focused tightly on Washington's character", which the critic Jonathan Yardley said he had achieved.<ref name="Yardley"/>

==False claims of combat service and anti-war leadership==
In June 2001, ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' revealed that Ellis had misled his students in lectures and the public through the media about his role in the [[Vietnam War]] years. Ellis falsely claimed that he had been involved in protests in the [[civil rights movement]] and [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|anti-war movement]] in the 1960s.<ref name="PI">{{cite news|url=http://www.seattlepi.com/books/202551_ellis07.html|title=Ellis doesn't want to revisit his own past|last=John|first=Marshall|date=2004-12-07|work=Seattle Post Intelligencer|access-date=2008-07-08}}</ref> He also repeatedly claimed to have fought in the Vietnam War. In one of his lectures, Ellis stated that he had been involved in helping to clear an area near My Lai shortly before a [[My Lai massacre|well-known massacre]] was carried out in the village. In a 2000 interview, he claimed to have been a platoon leader, a paratrooper in the [[101st Airborne Division]], and to have served on the staff of General [[William Westmoreland]] in [[Saigon]]. In actuality, although he had been in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War era, Ellis had never served in Vietnam at all.<ref name="LaT6192001"/>

Ellis issued a public apology in August 2001.<ref>{{cite press release | first=Joseph | last=Ellis | url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/news/ellisstatement.html| title=Further Statement of Joseph J. Ellis| publisher=Mount Holyoke College | date=2001-08-17| access-date=2006-08-04 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060715135033/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/news/ellisstatement.html <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = 2006-07-15}}</ref> He cited rumors at Mount Holyoke campus that he had served in Vietnam but would not talk about it because of some disturbing experience as something that led him to fabricate claims of service. He said that he had felt guilty about not actually serving in Vietnam.<ref name="PI"/> In the ensuing controversy, Mount Holyoke suspended him without pay for a year. He returned to the classroom at the end of that time.<ref>{{cite press release |first=Joanne |last=Creighton |url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/news/ellisdecision.shtml |title=A Letter to the Mount Holyoke Community |publisher=Mount Holyoke College |date=2001-08-17 |access-date=2006-08-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060621123107/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/news/ellisdecision.shtml |archive-date=June 21, 2006 }}</ref> However, Ellis was prohibited from again teaching his course on the 1960s, during which most of his fabrications were made.<ref name="PI"/> In May 2005, Mount Holyoke restored his position as Ford Foundation Professor of History.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/052005/chairs.shtml| title=Trustees Name Four Faculty Members to Endowed Chairs| publisher=[[Mount Holyoke College]]| date=2005-05-20| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011213551/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/052005/chairs.shtml| archive-date=October 11, 2012| df=mdy-all}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Ellis currently lives in [[Vermont]] with his wife Ellen Wilkins Ellis, and is the father of three adult sons. {{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

==Publications==
===Books===

{| class="wikitable" 
|-
!Title!!Year!!ISBN!!Publisher!!Subject matter!!Interviews, presentations, and reviews!!Comments
|-
|''[https://books.google.com/books?id=CUS7AAAAIAAJ The New England Mind in Transition: Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, 1696–1772]''||1973||{{ISBN|9780300016154}}||[[Yale University Press]]||[[Samuel Johnson (American educator)|Samuel Johnson]]|| ||
|-
|''[https://books.google.com/books?id=_KssAAAAYAAJ School for Soldiers: West Point and the Profession of Arms]''||1974||{{ISBN|9780195018431}}||[[Oxford University Press]]||[[United States Military Academy]]|| ||Written with Robert Moore
|-
|''[https://books.google.com/books?id=eZaFF4XYh8UC After the Revolution: Profiles of Early American Culture]''||1979||{{ISBN|9780393012538}}||[[W. W. Norton]]|| || ||
|-
|''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xK_NVQCRfn4C Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams]''||1993||{{ISBN|9780393034790}}||[[W. W. Norton]]||[[John Adams]]||[https://www.c-span.org/video/?49975-1/passionate-sage-john-adams ''Booknotes'' interview with Ellis on ''Passionate Sage'', September 5, 1993], [[C-SPAN]]||
|-
|''[[American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson]]''||1996||{{ISBN|9780679444909}}||[[Alfred A. Knopf]]||[[Thomas Jefferson]]||[https://www.c-span.org/video/?79107-1/american-sphinx-character-thomas-jefferson Presentation by Ellis on ''American Sphinx'', February 23, 1997], [[C-SPAN]]||Winner of the 1997 [[National Book Award for Nonfiction]]<ref name=nba1997/>
|-
|''[https://books.google.com/books?id=R4zUwAEACAAJ What Did the Declaration Declare?]''||1999||{{ISBN|9780312190637}}||[[Bedford/St. Martin's]]||[[United States Declaration of Independence]]|| ||Ellis was the editor of and a contributor to this volume in the ''Historians at Work'' series
|-
|''[[Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation]]''||2000||{{ISBN|9780375405440}}||[[Alfred A. Knopf]]||[[John Adams]], [[Thomas Jefferson]], [[George Washington]], [[James Madison]], [[Alexander Hamilton]], and [[Aaron Burr]]||[https://www.c-span.org/video/?159950-1/founding-brothers-revolutionary-generation Presentation by Ellis on ''Founding Brothers'', October 22, 2000], [[C-SPAN]]<br>[https://www.c-span.org/video/?164868-1/founding-brothers-revolutionary-generation Presentation by Ellis on ''Founding Brothers'', June 22, 2001], [[C-SPAN]]||Winner of the 2001 [[Pulitzer Prize for History]]<ref name=pulitzer/><ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2001/history| title=2001 Pulitzer Prize Winners| publisher=pulitzer.org | year=2001 | access-date=2006-08-04}}</ref>
|-
|''[[His Excellency: George Washington]]''||2004||{{ISBN|9781400040315}}||[[Alfred A. Knopf]]||[[George Washington]]||[https://www.c-span.org/video/?184902-1/his-excellency-george-washington Presentation by Ellis on ''His Excellency: George Washington'', December 16, 2004], [[C-SPAN]]<br>[https://www.c-span.org/video/?189007-13/his-excellency-george-washington Presentation by Ellis on ''His Excellency: George Washington'', September 24, 2005], [[C-SPAN]]||
|-
|''[[American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic]]''||2007||{{ISBN|9780307263698}}||[[Alfred A. Knopf]]|| ||[https://www.c-span.org/video/?202220-1/american-creation Discussion with Ellis on ''American Creation'', November 29, 2007], [[C-SPAN]]<br>[https://www.econtalk.org/ellis-on-american-creation-and-the-founding/ Interview with Ellis on ''American Creation'', September 8, 2008], [[EconTalk]]||
|-
|''[https://books.google.com/books?id=YqxGF0WLEkYC First Family: Abigail and John Adams]''||2010||{{ISBN|9780307269621}}||[[Alfred A. Knopf]]||[[Abigail Adams]], [[John Adams]]||[https://www.c-span.org/video/?296544-1/first-family-abigail-john-adams Presentation by Ellis on ''First Family'', October 27, 2010], [[C-SPAN]]||
|-
|''[https://books.google.com/books?id=z4RqZJzho1QC Revolutionary Summer: The Birth of American Independence]''||2013||{{ISBN|9780307701220}}||[[Alfred A. Knopf]]|| ||[https://www.c-span.org/video/?314119-1/revolutionary-summer Presentation by Ellis on ''Revolutionary Summer'', July 17, 2013], [[C-SPAN]]||
|-
|''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Z31oBAAAQBAJ The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution, 1783-1789]''||2015||{{ISBN|9780385353403}}||[[Alfred A. Knopf]]|| ||[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ab3W8BSaCk The Quartet: Orchestrating the Second American Revolution ], ''National Archives'', May 12, 2015<br>[https://www.c-span.org/video/?326130-1/the-quartet Presentation by Ellis on ''The Quartet'', May 14, 2015], [[C-SPAN]]<br>[https://www.c-span.org/video/?327596-5/the-quartet Presentation by Ellis on ''The Quartet'', September 5, 2015], [[C-SPAN]]||
|-
|''[https://books.google.com/books?id=AejEDwAAQBAJ American Dialogue: The Founders and Us]''||2018||{{ISBN|9780385353427}}||[[Alfred A. Knopf]]|| ||[https://www.c-span.org/video/?451987-1/american-dialogue Presentation by Ellis on ''American Dialogue'', October 16, 2018], [[C-SPAN]]||
|-
|''[https://books.google.com/books?id=wYiQEAAAQBAJ The Cause: The American Revolution and its Discontents, 1773-1783]''||2021||{{ISBN|9781631498985}}||[[Liveright Publishing]]|| ||[https://www.c-span.org/video/?514521-1/the-cause Presentation by Ellis on ''The Cause'', September 19, 2021], [[C-SPAN]]<br>[https://www.c-span.org/video/?514667-1/open-phones-joseph-ellis Interview with Ellis on ''The Cause'', October 10, 2021], [[C-SPAN]]||
|}

===Essays===
* [http://www.josephellishistorian.com/In_the_News.html long listing]
* [http://www.salon.com/2013/06/16/joseph_ellis_1776_the_summer_america_was_born/ "1776, the summer America was born"], Salon.com, Jun 16, 2013 
* [http://www.americanheritage.com/content/madison%E2%80%99s-radical-agenda "Madison’s Radical Agenda"], ''American Heritage,'' Winter 2010 
* [http://www.americanheritage.com/content/inventing-presidency "Inventing the Presidency"], ''American Heritage,'' October 2004.
* [http://www.americanheritage.com/content/intimate-enemies "Intimate Enemies"] (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson), ''American Heritage,'' September 2000.

===Editorials===
* [https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-1014-ellis-debt-tea-party-shutdown-20131015-story.html "Tea party wants to take America back -- to the 18th century]," ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', Op-Ed, October 15, 2013.
* "[http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-oe-ellis2jan02,1,4077372.story?coll=la-news-a_section&ctrack=1&cset=true A promise of unpredictability: Presidential candidates pledge a lot, but history says you can ignore most of it]" - ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' (Jan 2, 2008)
* "[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122101414.html What Would George Do?: Okay, He Never Saw a Chopper, but He Can Still Teach Us a Thing or Two.]" - ''[[Washington Post]]'' (Dec 23, 2007)
* "[http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/news/newsfull.shtml?node=4038605 Finding a Place for 9/11 in American History] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080306103059/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/news/newsfull.shtml?node=4038605 |date=March 6, 2008 }}" - ''[[New York Times]]'' (Jan 28, 2006)

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==External links==

* {{Official website}}
* [http://www.pulitzer.org/biography/2001,History Biography from The Pulitzer Board]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071107102417/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/misc/profile/15435.shtml Biography from Mount Holyoke]
* {{C-SPAN|32531}}

{{PulitzerPrize HistoryAuthors 2001–2025}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ellis, Joseph}}
[[Category:1943 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:21st-century American historians]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Historians of the United States]]
[[Category:National Book Award winners]]
[[Category:Mount Holyoke College faculty]]
[[Category:Pulitzer Prize for History winners]]
[[Category:College of William & Mary alumni]]
[[Category:Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni]]
[[Category:Gonzaga College High School alumni]]
[[Category:United States Army officers]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:United States Military Academy faculty]]