Woody Holton is associate professor of history at the University of Richmond. His most recent book, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution (Hill & Wang), was a finalist for the 2007 National Book Award.

His first book, Forced Founders: Indians, Debtors, Slaves and the Making of the American Revolution in Virginia, won the Merle Curti Award from the Organization of American Historians (OAH). His work has been selected for the OAH's Best American History Essays (2006). Currently Holton is at work on a major new life of Abigail Adams, to be published by Free Press. He was named a recipient of a 2008 Guggenheim Memorial Foundational Fellowship in connection with his work on Abigail Adams.