Van Gosse is a Professor of History at Franklin & Marshall. After writing about the New Left “movement of movements” for some years, in 2021 he published The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America, From the Revolution to the Civil War. He has been active in peace and solidarity work since the 1980s (CISPES, Peace Action, United for Peace and Justice) and helped found Historians Against the War, now H-PAD, in 2003.