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Bring your lunch and learn about Library Fellow Frank Cogliano's research project, Thomas Jefferson Believes: Faith and Politics

Using the resources at the George Washington Presidential Library, Cogliano is researching the origins of the separation of church and state in the new United States. In this talk he considers the question of whether the United States was founded as a Christian nation, a topic which has preoccupied historians, politicians, and Americans of faith (and no faith) since 1776.

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About the Presenter

About the Presenter

Frank Cogliano is Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh. A specialist in the history of the American Revolution and the early United States, he is the author or editor of twelve books. In April 2026 the University of Virginia Press published The American Revolution at 250: Twenty-four Historians Reflect on the Founding  which he edited. In June he and Peter S. Onuf will publish Thomas Jefferson Survives: American Independence in His Time and Ours with Norton/Liveright. His 2024 book: Revolutionary Friendship: Washington, Jefferson and the American Republic (Harvard University Press) was a finalist for the 2025 George Washington Prize. Along with Patrick Griffin, Christa Dierksheide and Eliga Gould he edits the Revolutionary Age series for the University of Virginia Press. He co-hosts the American history podcast The Whiskey Rebellion and makes regular media appearances, commenting on U.S. history, politics and international relations, for the BBC and other outlets. 

Recipient of the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Senior Fellowship in Political History, the Presidency, and Constitutional Thought