Jim Cullen was born in Queens, New York, and attended public schools on Long Island. He received his B.A. in English from Tufts University, and his A.M. and Ph.D. degrees in American Civilization from Brown University. He has taught at a number of colleges and universities, including Harvard, Brown and Sarah Lawrence College. He was a longtime faculty member and History Department chair at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York before moving to the recently founded Greenwich Country Day School in 2020. He is married to historian Lyde Cullen Sizer of Sarah Lawrence College, and has four children.
Jim is the author of 24 books, which include "Sensing the Past: Hollywood Stars and Historical Visions" (Oxford University Press, 2013), "The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation" (Oxford, 2003) and "Born in the USA: Bruce Springsteen and the American Tradition" (3rd. ed, 2024). His latest book is "Massachusetts Maverick Women: A Revolutionary Tradition," published to coincide with the nation's 250th birthday.