Ken Ackerman is the author of “Young J. Edgar: Hoover and the Red Scare, 1919-1920″ (Viral History Press) , a book that partly inspired the recent film J. Edgar, directed by Clint Eastwood.  Ackerman has authored three previous books, including one on Boss Tweed, and another on President James Garfield.  Ken Ackerman, a writer and attorney in Washington, D.C., a 35-year veteran of senior positions in Congress, the executive branch, financial regulation, and private law.

Update 5/14/2012: This Presentation has been canceled.

Stacia Brown is the author of “Accidents of Providence” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), a historical fiction that takes place during the English Civil War.

 ”Intelligent, masterful, suspenseful—one of the best books I’ve read in years. An impressive debut novel from a hugely talented new writer, Accidents of Providence was a rare treat.” —Margaret George, author of many works of historical fiction, including “Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles”

Stacia Brown grew up in Asheville, North Carolina. She earned graduate degrees in religion and historical theology from Emory University in Atlanta.  Before moving to Atlanta, Stacia worked as a swing-shift monitor for a 250-bed homeless shelter in San Francisco.  She lives and works in Decatur, Georgia.

Timothy M. Gay is the author of the upcoming, “Assignment to Hell: The War Against Nazi Germany with Correspondents Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, A.J. Liebling, Homer Bigard, and Hal Boyle” (NAL Hardcover).  He has written two previous books, “Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend” and “Satch, Dizzy & Rapid Robert:  The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball Before Jackie Robinson.” Tim’s essays on politics, public policy, history, and sports history have appeared in the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, USA Today, and many other publications.  He is a graduate of GeorgetownUniversity and lives in Vienna,Virginia, with his wife Elizabeth and three children.

Clint Hill was a Secret Service Agent assigned to the White House and served Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford.  He was in the motorcade in Dallas on November 22, 1963, assigned to protect First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, when President Kennedy was assassinated.  He is credited with saving Mrs. Kennedy’s life. After rising through the ranks of the Secret Service, he retired in 1975 as Assistant Director, responsible for all protective forces.  Hill remains in contact with the current U.S. Secret Service and is actively involved in training activities.

Adam Hochschild is an award-winning historian, whose latest book, “To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914-1918″ (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), focuses on the now largely-forgotten opposition to World War 1. The late Christopher Hitchens, reviewing it in the New York Times, called it a “moving and important book,” and that it “is a book to make one feel deeply and painfully, and also to think hard.”  (Update – 1/22/2012: To End All Wars is a finalist for the 2012 National Book Critics Circle Award)

Adam Hochschild has written for The New Yorker, Harper’s, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books, and many other magazines, and is the author of seven books. “King Leopold’s Ghost: a Story of Greed, Terror and Heroism in Colonial Africa” was a finalist for the 1998 National Book Critics Circle Award; “Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire’s Slaves,” was a finalist for the 2005 National Book Award and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

Gregg Jones is the author of “Honor in the Dust: Theodore Roosevelt, War in the Philippines, and the Rise and Fall of America’s Imperial Dream” (NAL Hardcover).  A Missouri native, Jones was a Pulitzer Prize-finalist investigative reporter and foreign correspondent before writing books full time. He has been a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His work has also appeared in the Washington Post and Boston Globe, as well as the British Guardian and Observer newspapers. After living in Bangkok, Manila, Mexico City and northern California, he now calls Texas home.

Marvin and Deborah Kalb are a father-daughter journalism team who joined forces to write their new book, “Haunting Legacy: Vietnam and the American Presidency from Ford to Obama” (Brookings Institution Press). Marvin Kalb’s journalism career covers 30 years of award-winning reporting and commentary for CBS and NBC News, including a stint as host of Meet the Press. He is a Guest Scholar in the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings and the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Practice (Emeritus) at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Deborah Kalb followed in her father’s footsteps as a journalist and has reported for the Gannett News Service, Congressional Quarterly, U.S. News & World Report and The Hill.

Before turning to narrative nonfiction with “City of Scoundrels” and “The White Cascade,” Gary Krist published three novels and two short-story collections. He has written reviews for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, and the Washington Post, and his articles and stories have appeared in National Geographic Traveler, GQ, Esquire, and on NPR. He has been the recipient of The Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Lowell Thomas Gold Medal for Travel Journalism, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He lives in Bethesda.

Jim Lehrer is best known as the former news anchor for “NewsHour” on PBS and for his role as a frequent debate moderator during presidential elections. He has written 28 non-fiction and fiction books, drawing from his experiences and interests in history and politics. In his latest book, “Tension City: Inside the Presidential Debates, from Kennedy-Nixon to McCain-Obama” (Random House), he tells the inside story of what he calls the “major moments” and “killer questions” that defined major televised debates both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.

Garrett Peck is a literary journalist and a self-described “history dork,” and leads the Temperance Tour of Prohibition-related sites in Washington, DC. He was involved with the DC Craft Bartenders Guild in lobbying the DC City Council to have the Rickey declared Washington’s native cocktail in 2011. He will speak about his latest two books, “Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren’t,” and “The Potomac River: A History and Guide.”

Robert C. Plumb is the author of “Your Brother in Arms: A Union Soldier’s Odyssey.”  Plumb served in the Navy as an officer in the Atlantic Fleet, and later commanded a patrol boat in Vietnam.  Following military service, he held marketing executive positions in two Fortune 500 companies working in both U.S. and international markets. His work appeared in the Washington Post Style, Home, Travel and Editorial sections. Plumb is a member of the Civil War Trust and the Society of Civil War Historians. He and his wife Louise live in Potomac, Maryland.

David O. Stewart is a historian whose third book, “American Emperor: Aaron Burr’s Challenge to Jefferson’s America” (Simon & Schuster), tells the story of America’s third Vice President as a daring, and perhaps deluded, figure who shook the nation’s foundations in its earliest, most vulnerable decades. The book follows his well-received books, “The Summer of 1787” and “Impeached: The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln’s Legacy.”  Stewart is a Washington, D.C.-based constitutional lawyer; and it is his love of the intricacies of the law drew him to write non-fiction books on the subjects in American history that have shaped or tested the constitution

Tim Wendel is the author of “Summer of ’68: The Season That Changed Baseball – and America – Forever” (Da Capo Press), due out in March 2012. Wendel’s writing has appeared in Esquire, GQ, Gargoyle, The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today, where he is on the op-ed page’s board of contributors. Wendel has written nine books and is a journalist and teacher at John Hopkins University, as well as a Pen/Faulkner visiting writer to the Washington, D.C., Public Schools.

CW Whitehair is the author of “Escape Across the Potomac,” a Civil War story.  A descendant of one of the last nine hostages held by John Brown during the Harpers Ferry raid in October, 1859, Whitehair has spent 18 years in both civilian and military roles in Civil War reenactments.

CW is a contributing writer for the Civil War Courier and the Camp Chase Gazette. He has co-authored two novels with his wife Rhonda-Lee, “Northern Fire,” and “The Bloody Harvest.”  He is a guest speaker at Civil War Round-tables, historical associations, schools, Civil War re-enactments, civic organizations, book festivals, and libraries.

John Wiley, Jr. is the co-author of “Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind” (Taylor Trade Publishing), a history of how GWTW became an international phenomenon that has sustained the public’s interest for 75 years. Wiley is one of the world’s foremost authorities on Margaret Mitchell and her novel. He owns an immense collection of related memorabilia, including more than 800 different editions of the novel, and has been interviewed by USA Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the London Times and NPR. Wiley publishes The Scarlett Letter, a quarterly newsletter for GWTW fans, and served as artistic adviser for a 1999 U.S. postage stamp featuring the novel.