William H. Goetzmann is Professor Emeritus and Jack S. Blanton Chair in History at the University of Texas at Austin and the author of several books, including the Pulitzer Prize– and Francis Parkman Award–winner, Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and Scientist in the Winning of the American West (Knopf, 1966). His other books include New Lands, New Men: America and the Second Great Age of Discovery (Viking, 1986) and The West of the Imagination (Norton, 1988), which was the basis for a major PBS series. He has been elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

    Goetzmann’s next book, Beyond the Revolution: A History of American Thought from Paine to Pragmatism, will be published by Basic Books in February 2009.