John Stauffer is professor of English and American Literature and African-American Studies chair of the History of American Civilization program at Harvard. His books include Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln and The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race.
Benjamin Soskis is a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, and Policy at George Mason University. He has taught at George Washington University and the University of California, Washington Center. His writing has appeared in The New Republic, The New York Times, and Slate.com.