Henry Steele Commager was an American historian who wrote and edited over 40 books and over 700 journalistic essays, including THE GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC, THE UNRAVELING OF AMERICA: A HISTORY OF LIBERALISM IN THE 1960s, and THE EMPIRE OF REASON: HOW EUROPE IMAGINED AND AMERICA REALIZED THE ENLIGHTENMENT. He was the John Woodruff Simpson Lecturer in History at Amherst College. From the official Commager Web Site:

Commager was an ardent defender of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, courageously opposing McCarthyism in the 1940s and 1950s and the Vietnam Conflict (on constitutional grounds) before it was fashionable to do so, and combating the rampant illegalities and unconstitutionalities perpetrated by the administration of Richard Nixon.