Robert M.S. McDonald is Professor of History at the United States Military Academy. He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia, his M.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, his M.St. from Oxford, and his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He has published several journal articles and essays and is editor of Thomas Jefferson’s Military Academy: Founding West Point (University of Virginia Press, 2004), Light & Liberty: Thomas Jefferson and the Power of Knowledge (University of Virginia Press, 2012), and Sons of the Father: George Washington and His Protégés(University of Virginia Press, 2013). He is author of Confounding Father: Thomas Jefferson’s Image in His Own Time (University of Virginia Press, 2016).