James M. Banner Jr. is an independent historian in Washington, D.C., whose scholarly interests have focused on the history of the United States between 1765 and 1865. A leader in the creation of the National History Center and cofounder and codirector of the History News Service, he is currently writing a book about what it means to be a historian today. He is most recently the coeditor, with John R. Gillis, of Becoming Historians (University of Chicago Press, 2009).