A professor and scholar specializing in modern American political and intellectual history, Ellen Fitzpatrick is  the author and editor of eight books, including The Highest Glass Ceiling: Women's Quest for the American Presidency (Harvard University Press, 2016), the New York Times best selling, Letters to Jackie: Condolences from a Grieving Nation (Ecco, 2010); History’s Memory: Writing America’s Past, 1880-1980 (Harvard University Press, 2002); America in Modern Times, co-authored with Alan Brinkley (McGraw Hill, 1997); Endless Crusade: Women Social Scientists and Progressive Reform  (Oxford University Press, 1990), an updated edition of Eleanor Flexner's classic study of the women's rights movement, Century of Struggle (Harvard University Press, 1996) as well as many articles and reviews. Letters to Jackie became the basis for a 2014 documentary film by Bill Couturié entitled Letters to Jackie: Remembering President Kennedy for which Fitzpatrick served as Associate Producer.  The Highest Glass Ceiling was selected as a 2016 "Editor's Choice" by the New York Times, and a notable nonfiction book of 2016 by the Washington Post. It was also excerpted in The New Yorker.

Fitzpatrick, who holds a PhD in History from Brandeis University, is Professor of History, Emerita at the University of New Hampshire and has taught previously at Harvard University, M.I.T. and Wellesley College..  She has appeared as a commentator on PBS’ The News Hour and has been interviewed as an expert on modern American political history by numerous print media outlets including The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, USA Today, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, The Boston Globe, and the Washington Post.  She has done radio and television interviews for CNN, Face the Nation, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CBS, National Public Radio, the BBC and WGBH-Public Television in Boston among others. The recipient of many grants in aid of her research, including support from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, Rockefeller University and Harvard University, Fitzpatrick has also held fellowships from the Charles Warren Center for the Study of American History at Harvard University (twice),  the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.  She is the recipient of the University of New Hampshire's Award for Excellence in Public Service , the 2017 Lindberg Award for the outstanding teacher-scholar in the College of Liberal Arts and the 2021 Jean C. Brierley Award for Excellence in Teaching, University Wide..