Stephen F. Knott is the Thomas & Mabel Guy Professor of American History and Government at Ashland University and Professor of National Security Affairs at the United States Naval War College.

He served as co-chair of the University of Virginia’s Presidential Oral History Program and directed the Ronald Reagan Oral History Project. He is the author of Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth; Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and the American Presidency; The Reagan Years; At Reagan’s Side: Insiders’ Recollections from Sacramento to the White House; Rush to Judgment: George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and His Critics; and Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance That Forged America. His most recent book, The Lost Soul of the American Presidency: The Decline into Demagoguery and the Prospects for Renewal, was published in November, 2019.

Professor Knott received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston College, and has taught at the United States Air Force Academy and the University of Virginia.