As American historians, we are deeply alarmed by the impending election. Since 1789, the nation has prospered under a Constitution dedicated to securing the general welfare, under a national government bound by the rule of law in which no one interest or person holds absolute power. In 1860, an elite interest dedicated to human slavery attempted to shatter the Union rather than accede to the constitutional rule of law by accepting the outcome of the election, plunging the nation into Civil War.

Today, Donald Trump, openly hostile to democracy and to American constitutional customs, seeks to return to office as president. He has flagrantly defied the rule of law. He repeatedly sought to thwart the result of the free and fair election of 2020. His performance has persuaded many of those who worked most closely with him that he is an authoritarian. Now a convicted felon, he has stated his intention to use his power to intimidate, prosecute and imprison his political critics and opponents, whom he designates as “the enemy within.” Given the free hand that he would enjoy today by the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision, we take his threats with utmost seriousness as a clear and present danger to American democracy.

Kamala Harris has dedicated her life to affirming the rule of law and democracy. As a prosecutor and California attorney-general, she pursued justice without fear or favor. As U.S. Senator, she confronted those who would aid and abet the malign use of authority. As Vice President, she has worked to find solutions to urgent problems, domestic and foreign. As a presidential candidate, she has called out her opponent as a disgrace to his oath as president to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.

We believe, based on our study of the past, that the nation stands at an unprecedented historical as well as a political crossroads. On the outcome of this election, no less than the election of 1860, hangs the fate of both the spirit and the letter of the Constitution. We appeal to our fellow citizens, whether conservative, independent, or liberal, regardless of party affiliation, to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. We make this call not as partisans but as historians who believe in the pursuit of a more perfect Union—and we urge all Americans to join us.

KAI BIRD

SIDNEY BLUMENTHAL

KEN BURNS

RON CHERNOW

BEVERLY GAGE

EDDIE GLAUDE

JON MEACHAM

SEAN WILENTZ

Interested historians are invited to add their signatures here.

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Susan Dunn, Williams College

David Blight, Yale University

Laura Kalman, UC Santa Barbara

Judith A. Miller, Emory University, Dept. of History

Amy Dru Stanley, University of Chicago

Peniel E. Joseph, University of Texas at Austin

Louise W. Knight, Independent Scholar

Timothy Silver, Appalachian State University

Eileen Boris, University of California, Santa Barbara

Jonathan Eig, Author

Amy Bass

Elspeth Whitney, Professor Emerita, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Adam Arenson

Joanne Meyerowitz, Yale University

Michael J. Pfeifer, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Fredrik Logevall, Harvard University

James M. Banner, Jr.

Laura Wexler, Yale University

Hampton Sides, Doubleday

Stacy Schiff, Author

Mary Kupiec Cayton, Miami University

Russell Shorto, The New York Historical Society

Brian Matthew Jordan

Caitlin Rosenthal, UC Berkeley

Judith W Leavitt, Emerita, University of Wisconsin Madison

Chris Fobare, Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Ronald L. Feinman, Florida Atlantic University

Steve Cohen, Tufts University

David Hoillinger, University of California, Berkeley

Adam Shprintzen, Marywood University

Kenneth Pomeranz, University of Chicago

David Brundage, University of California, Santa Cruz

Sara McDougall, CUNY

Megan Marshall, Emerson College

Paul Sparrow, Retired

Jean O’Brien, University of Minnesota

Tim Lehman, Rocky Mountain College

Maurice Isserman, Hamilton College

Rick Shenkman, Founder, History News Network

Anne M. Boylan, University of Delaware

Susan M. Reverby, Wellesley College

Kathryn K. Sklar, Distinguished Professor Emerita, State University of New York

Seth Tannenbaum

Steven A Leibo PhD, Russell Sage College

Harold Holzer, Hunter College, CUNY

Jeff Shesol

Diane Wolfthal, Rice University

Peter W. Williams, Miami University Emeritus

Benjamin L. Carp, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Jim Downs, Gettysburg College

James Zarsadiaz

Robert DuPlessis, Swarthmore College

Patricia Harms, Brandon University

Ian Shin, University of Michigan

Matthew Dallek, George Washington University

Jennifer Klein, Yale University

Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Harvard Kennedy School

Geoffrey C. Ward, Independent Scholar

David Grubin, Independent Filmmaker

Brad McKinnon, Heritage Christian University

Mason B. Williams, Williams College

Leigh Ann Wheeler, Binghamton University

Richard Parker, Kennedy School, Harvard University

Grace Peña Delgado, University of California, Santa Cruz

Christopher Sellers, Stony Brook University

M. Colette Plum, UC Berkeley

Adam Hochschild, U.C. Berkeley

Jonathan Eig, Author

Karen Cox, Retired

Stephen Schlesinger, Fellow, Century Foundation

Peter Kolchin, University of Delaware

John Avlon

Ted Widmer, City University of New York

Ann Fabian, Rutgers university, emerita

Tiya Miles, Harvard University

Peter Kornbluh, Historian

Jack Schneider, UMass Amherst

Marc Becker, Truman State University

Ava Jordan

Bruce Gourley

Anne Palazzo, Fort Hamilton HS

Keisha N. Blain, Brown University

Peggy Smith, Democrat

Mark S. Byrnes, Wofford College

Diane Miller Sommerville, Binghamton University, SUNY

Wendy Wall, Binghamton University, SUNY

Ian Buruma, Bard College

David Nasaw, CUNY Graduate Center

Daniel Czitrom, Mount Holyoke College

Alyssa Ritch-Frel, A Ritch History (Genealogist & Historical Researcher)

John W. Quist, Shippensburg University

Malissa Smith, Girlboxing.org

David Avrom Bell, Princeton University

Dan Royles, Binghamton University

James Grossman

Justin Jackson, Bard College at Simon’s Rock

Donald Nieman, Binghamton University

Fergus M. Bordewich, Independent Historian

Kenneth R Bowling, retired Co-editor, Documentary History of the First Federal Congress, 1789-1791

Una M. Cadegan, University of Dayton

Diane McWhorter

Maya Soifer Irish, Rice University

David J. Silverman, George Washington University

Naomi Lamoreaux, Yale University

Robert McElvaine, Millsaps College

Daniel Okrent

William Smaldone, Willamette University

James Carroll

Allida Black

Myrna Santiago, Saint Mary’s College of California

Ethan Kytle, California State University, Fresno

Linford Fisher, Brown University

Milton Nieuwsma, Retired

Steven Lawson, Rutgers University

Holly Brewer, University of Maryland

Rick Atkinson, Author and Historian

Jonathan Taplin, University of Southern California (Emeritus)

Patricia O’Toole

Sherry Pringle, Democrat

Monica Spencer

Donald L Miller, Emeritus Professor of History, Lafayette College

Amanda Foreman, Chairperson, House of SpeakEasy

Michael Green, UNLV

Ariela Gross, UCLA

Dolph Briscoe IV, Texas A&M University-San Antonio

Lawrence Cleveland, Republican (Voted VP Harris) Texas

James Oakes

Lisa Tendrich Frank, Independent Scholar

Andrew Frank

Bettina Aptheker, Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz

Leslie Schwalm

Stephenie Ambrose Tubbs, University of Montana Alum.

Sharon Wood, Retired

Peg Collins, Retired

David Myers, UCLA History Department

David Levering Lewis, University Professor Emeritus, NYU

Patrick B. Miller, Dept of History—Northeastern Illinois University

William diGiacomantonio

Patrick B. Miller, History—Northeastern Illinois University

Penny Von Eschen, University of Virginia

David Henkin, University of California, Berkeley

Harriet A. Washington, Columbia University

Thomas Dublin, SUNY Binghamton

Kevin K. Gaines, University of Virginia

Sam Tanenhaus

Alejandra B Osorio, Wellesley College

Kathleen Dalton, Independent Scholar

Elizabeth D. Leonard, Colby College, Waterville, ME

Gail Hershatter, University of California, Santa Cruz

Nell Irvin Painter, Independent Writer

Daniel Horowitz

H. Larry Ingle, Retired, University of Tennessee-Chattanooga

Elena Songster

Matthew Frye Jacobson, Yale University

Woody Register, University of the South

Dayton Duncan

Max Felker-Kantor, Ball State

Virginia Reinburg, Boston College

Cynthia A. Kierner

Eric Foner, Columbia University

Anne Sarah Rubin, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Harvey J. Kaye, Prof. Emeritus University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Michael Kazin, Georgetown University

Rebecca L. Davis, University of Delaware

Don H. Doyle, University of South Carolina, Emeritus

Kurt Andersen

Lauren Mancia, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Tracy Steffes, Brown University

Jonathan Alter

Carol Groneman, John Jay College of Criminal Justice and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Benjamin Carter Hett, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY

Anne Marie Wolf, University of Maine - Farmington

Richard H. Kohn, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Craig L Symonds, Emeritus, U.S. Naval Academy

Rose Stremlau, Davidson College

Adam Blackler, University of Wyoming

Raymond H. Dominick III, Professor Emeritus at The Ohio State University

John Stauffer, Harvard University

Helmut Walser Smith, Vanderbilt University

AJ Plotke, Great War Primary Documents Archive

Catherine Clinton, University of Texas in San Antonio

Tyler Anbinder, Professor Emeritus, George Washington University

Marcia M. Gallo, Emerita, University of Nevada Las Vegas

Kenneth D. Ackerman, Independent Writer

Ty Seidule

Jay M. Smith, UNC-Chapel Hill

Zachary S Schiffman, Northeastern Illinois University, Emeritus

Alison Parker, University of Delaware

Kathleen DuVal, Author and Historian

Lisa Lindsay, University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

James Mann, Author, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

Edwin Williams, Independent

C. Morris

Leslie Choquette, Assumption University

Richard Slotkin, Wesleyan University, Retired

Robert K. Brigham, Vassar College

Christopher Morris

Alan Lawson, Professor Emeritus, Boston College

Doug Sackman, University of Puget Sound

Deborah Barton, Université de Montréal

Tim Lacy, Loyola University Chicago/Society for U.S. Intellectual History Co-founder

Melvyn Leffler, University of Virginia Emeritus

Van Gosse, Franklin & Marshall College (emeritus)

Robert Wilson, Independent Scholar

Douglas M. Charles, Penn State University

Mary Kelley, University of Michigan

Nancy Tomes, Stony Brook University

Lou Pérez, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Clara Bingham, Freelance

Mark Peterson, Yale University, Department of History

Lisa Champeau, Journalist

Cheryl Greenberg, Trinity College, Hartford CT

Elaine Weiss, Author

Jonathan Darman

Steven Beller, Independent Scholar

Bridgette Robinson, Prince George’s Community College

Nancy A Hewitt, Distinguished Professor Emerita, Rutgers University

John F Marszalek, Giles Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History and Retired Executive Director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library and U. S. Grant Association, Mississippi State University

Patrick Rael, Bowdoin College

Professor Jennifer Regan-Lefebvre, Trinity College

Adam Hochschild, U.C. Berkeley

Rosemarie Zagarri, George Mason University, History Dept.

Charles Ingrao, Professor Emeritus of History, Purdue University

Ian Reifowitz, SUNY Empire State University

Howard Lawrence Preston

Hasia Diner, New York university

Suzanne E. Smith, George Mason University

Michael O’Malley, George Mason University

Alice Baumgartner, University of Southern California

David Sorkin, Yale University

David Mayers, Boston University

Becky Nicolaides, Huntington-USC Institute on CA & West

Joseph Genetin-Pilawa, George Mason University

Jon Butler, Yale University & University of Minnesota

Andrew W. Robertson, Lehman College and the CUNY Graduate Center, City University of New York

Elizabeth R. Varon

Julia Sweig, Independent historian

Virginia DeJohn Anderson, University of Colorado Boulder (Retired)

Mari Jo Buhle, Brown University, Emerita

Christopher Benfey, Mount Holyoke College

Susan Strasser, Richards Professor Emerita of American History, University of Delaware

Blain Roberts, California State University, Fresno

Paul Freedman, Yale University

Martin Dean, Indpendent Scholar

Katharine Kennedy, Agnes Scott College, Emerita

Doug Haslam, Concerned citizen hoping to preserve our democracy

Kyle Livie, Professor of History, Ohlone College

Joanne Goodwin, UNLV Professor Emerita

Elizabeth Ellis, Princeton University

Meredith Lair, George Mason University

Hayley Negrin, University of Illinois at Chicago

Susan Ware, Independent Scholar

A. Tom Grunfeld, Empire State College/SUNY

Dave Brandt, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School

Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Harvard University

Nina Silber, Boston University

Mary C. Cain, Agnes Scott College

Abigail Markwyn, Carroll University

Ellen Schrecker, Yeshiva University (Retired)

Albert Camarillo

Julia Sweig

Sally Charnow, Hofstra University

Jeff Ravel, MIT

Nancy MacLean, Duke University

Barbara Winslow, Professor Emerita Brooklyn College

Clifford A Welch, UNIFESP

Susan Yohn, Hofstra University

Carolyn Eisenberg, Hofstra University

Bonnie Anderson, CUNY

Roger Peace, Independent Scholar

Roger Leisner, Radio Free Maine

Marisa Chappell, Oregon State University

Gary J. Kornblith, Wilson Bruce Evans Home Historical Society

J. Morgan Kousser, Caltech

Mona Siegel, California State University, Sacramento

Guy Alain Aronoff, Cal Poly Humboldt

Ellen Eisenberg, Willamette University

Deborah Cohen, University of Missouri-St. Louis

Shannon Christen, Kent State University

Arlene Avakian, University of Massachusetts Emeritus

Claire Goldberg Moses, University of Maryland (emerita)

Seth Cotlar, Willamette University

Daniel Walkowitz, New York University

Margaret Creighton, Professor Emerita. Bates College

David Gurowsky, New York City Dept. of Education (Retired)

Christopher Brown, Professor of History

Philip Chassler, Univeristy of Massachusetts Boston (Retired)

Tamika Nunley

Sarah Barringer Gordon, University of Pennsylvania

Mark Lincicome, College of the Holy Cross

MJ Maynes, University of Minnesota

Rick Halpern, University of Toronto

Sandra McGee Deutsch, Professor Emerita, University of Texas-El Paso

Christian Miles

Derek N. Buckaloo, Coe College

Hannah Gurman, New York University

Lorraine Chavez, University of Chicago

Wilbur R. Miller, History, SUNY Stony Brook (Emeritus)

John B Boles, Rice University

Julia Mickenberg, University of Texas at Austin (speaking as a private citizen)

Jennifer Frost, Visiting Scholar, University of Washington

Alex Beasley, UT Austin (signed as a private citizen)

Paul Michel Taillon, University of Auckland

Anne Derbes, Hood College

Frima Fox Hofrichter, Professor Emerita, Pratt Institute

Michael W Hassler, Alvernia University

Fred Anderson, Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado Boulder

Andrew Feffer, Professor Emeritus, History, Union College, Schenectady NY

Linda K Kerber, Retired

Peter Gough, California State University Sacramento

Marc Arsell Robinson, California State University, San Bernardino

Pamela Ekstrom, History Lover

Margaret (Peg) Strobel, University of Illinois at Chicago

Jean-Christophe Agnew, Yale University

Jennifer Ritterhouse, George Mason University

Judith Steinhoff

Mary C Wilson, University of Massachusetts

Susan Wladaver-Morgan, Pacific Historical Review, Retired

Al Carroll, Northern Virginia Community College

Elizabeth Schmidt, Loyola University Maryland

Norman Markowitz, Department of History, Rutgers University

Jessica Weiss, California State University, East Bay

Mary Ann Irwin, Author, California History (UC Press)

Louisa A. Burnham, Middlebury College

Walter Greason, Macalester College

Karen Sotiropoulos, Cleveland State University

Sarah Maza, Northwestern University

Kristian Blaich, Agnes Scott College

Claudette Tolson

Elisabeth Sommer

David L. Carlton, Vanderbilt University, Emeritus

Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History and Presidential Historian

Sean Munger, Independent

Ruth M Alexander

Mavis Amundson, Retired journalist, history teacher

Adam J. Davis, Denison University

Kenneth Zimmerman, The History Business

David T. Z. Mindich, Temple University

Sandi Cooper, Professor emerita, City U of New York at Staten Island and The Graduate School

Vernon Burton, Clemson University

Kathy Feeley, University of Redlands

Arun Raja Pookote

Rima Lunin Schultz, University of Illinois Chicago

Derek Larson, The College of St. Benedict + St. John’s University (MN)

Leslie Singer Lomas

Marjorie J. Spruill, University of South Carolina Emerita

Andrew Larsen, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

Allyson Hobbs, Stanford University

Steven Volk, Oberlin College

Margot Canaday, Princeton University

Alison Landsberg, George Mason University

Ross Caputi, UMass

Timothy M. Gay, Author of five books on popular history

Kathy Roberts Forde, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Sid Bedingfield, Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

William V. Hudon, Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania

Kitty Krupat, City University of New York (CUNY)

Martha A. Sandweiss, Princeton University

Iris Berger, University at Albany - SUNY

Ronald C. White, Historian and Biographer

Emilio Zamora, University of Texas at Austin

Michael Grossberg, Indiana University, Bloomington

Peter Kuznick, American University

James Borchert, Professor Emeritus Cleveland State University

Amy Kesseman, SUNY New Paltz

Patricia Bonomi, Emerita, New York University

Kristopher Burrell

Matthew H. Sommer, Stanford University

Darcy Buerkle, Smith College, Department of History

Steve Kantrowitz, UW-Madison

David Johnson, Portland State University, emeritus

Ruth Schwartz Cowan, University of Pennsylvania

Kimberly Jensen, Western Oregon University

Martha Hodes, New York University

Bruce Dorsey, Swarthmore College

Matthew S Luckett, California State University Dominguez Hills

Amy Kittelstrom, Sonoma State University

Linda Leavell, Biographers International Organization

Abigail Santamaria, The Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library

Justin Spring, Independent

David A. Kaplan

David Allyn

Victoria Phillips, Wilson Center

Caroline Fraser

Amanda Vaill, Independent scholar

Rev. Dr. Phillip A. Bernhardt-House, Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Laurence Bergreen, Independent historian

Betsy Ennis, Ennis O’Brien and Columbia University alum

Ann Norton Greene, University of Pennsylvania

Alexis Coe, New America

Larry Lockrige, New York University

Trinidad Gonzales

Marjorie Becker, Professor, History and English, University of Southern California

Neal Gabler

Rebecca A. Hunt, University of Colorado, Denver, Emerita

Geoffrey R. Hunt, Ph.D, Professor of History, Emeritus

John Matteson, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY

Carl E. Kramer, Ph.D., Indiana University Southeast (Retired) and Kramer Associates, Inc.

Rev. Dr. Nancy Koestet, Retired from Luther Seminary, Augsburg College

David S. Dunbar, DKDK Project

Henry Breed

Wes Singletary, Ph.D., Lawton Chiles High School

Ken Krimstein, Author/Graphic Biographer

Mary Ann Wynkoop, UMKC retired

Nigel Hamilton, UMass Boston

William E. Leuchtenburg, William Rand Kenan Prof. Emeritus, UNC Chapel Hill

Marilyn Richardson, Principal, Art + History Consultants

Gary Krist, Independent Scholar

Margaret Bendroth, Retired

Hilliary Turner, Rappahannock Community College and Southern New Hampshire University

Conevery Bolton Valencius, Boston College

Marguerite Renner, Glendale College

Margaret Lavinia Anderson, Historian UC-Berkeley Emerita

Barbara J. Howe

James J. Sheehan, Stanford University

Samuele F.S. Pardini, Elon University

Brian Goldstein, Swarthmore College

Darren Wood

Joshua Kendall, Biographer

Leonard Ortiz, Baker University, Retired

Lara Freidenfelds, Independent Scholar

Jay Turner, Wellesley College

Margo Anderson

Charles Lester, Ohio University

Emily Pawley, Dickinson College

David Greenberg, Rutgers University

Emma Hart, University of Pennsylvania

Gerard E Mayers, Independents

Jinny Turman

Barbara Epstein, History of Consciousness Dept. U.C. Santa Cruz

Susan Kullmann, Retired, CA State Polytechnic Univ., Pomona

Theresa McCulla

Antonia Castaneda, Profesor Emérita