Biography

BRUCE G. KAUFFMANN

Historian, Syndicated Columnist, Speaker, Author

Bruce Kauffmann is a columnist, historian and speaker whose work has appeared in magazines and newspapers nationwide, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the Buffalo News, American Politics magazine, Virginia Country magazine, American Spirit magazine, True West magazine, Something Better (digital version), History Matters, and The Early American Review, where his thesis on James Madison—James Madison “Godfather of the Constitution”—has long been one of its ten most visited links and is required reading in the history departments of several universities.

Formerly, he was a speechwriter for CBS News managing editor and news anchor, Dan Rather, as well as the head writer for the CBS News radio program, “Dan Rather Reporting, News Analysis and Commentary.” In this position he won several writing awards and citations from the Writer’s Guild of America, including the Hal Terkel Memorial award for general excellence in news writing and the 1991 award for “Best Spot News Radio” writer.

In January of 2001 he launched his short (450 words), weekly history column, Bruce’s History Lessons. Written to be both entertaining and informative, the column covers both well-known and little known events in American and world history.

A history fanatic since early childhood, Bruce has a thorough knowledge of a wide variety of historic subjects, including both world wars, the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, the American presidency, the history of the Supreme Court (and its most famous decisions), the Cold War, and even religious, cultural and sports history—Bruce has written about Papal encyclicals, the great racehorse Secretariat’s Triple Crown triumph and Elvis Presley being drafted into the army.

However, his true area of expertise is the American Revolution and the creation of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. His writings and lectures on those topics have resulted in his being invited on a number of radio talk shows to discuss the constitutionality of myriad public policy issues and Supreme Court decisions. He is “the Constitution guy,” according to one of those radio talk show hosts.