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Alexis Coe

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Alexis Coe
OccupationHistorian
Years active2014–present
Notable worksYou Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington

Alexis Coe is an American presidential historian, columnist, podcast host, exhibition curator and TV commenter. She is a senior fellow at New America, the American history columnist at the New York Times Book Review, and the author of award-winning Alice and Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis (2014) and the New York Times best-selling You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington (2020).[1][2][3]

Career

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Coe was an oral historian for the Brooklyn Historical Society while in graduate school. She was a research curator in the New York Public Library’s exhibitions department where she co-curated "Find the Past, Know the Future," the most popular exhibition in the Library's history.[4][5][6]

Coe has been published in The New York Times,[7]The Atlantic,[8] Slate,[9] The New Yorker,[10] and The New York Times Magazine.[11]

Coe published Alice and Freda Forever: A Murder in Memphis in 2014.[12] In 2016, Coe co-hosted the podcast Presidents Are People Too!.[13] In 2018, she hosted the podcast, No Man's Land, which was produced by the women's coworking space company The Wing.[14] It won a Webby award for Best Series.[15] Episodes have focused on Stephanie St. Clair, a leader of a Harlem-based criminal syndicate; Ana Mendieta, a Cuban-American artist;[16] and Ida B. Wells, a journalist and early leader in the Civil Rights Movement.[14]

In 2020, Coe published You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington, making her the first woman with a published biography of Washington in over a century.[citation needed] The book became a New York Times best-seller in February 2020 and was widely praised as genre-breaking.[3][6][17][18]

Coe produced and starred in The History Channel's Washington series with Doris Kearns Goodwin.[19]

In 2023, she spoke on CBS News about the historical significance of the March 2023 Indictment of Donald Trump.[20] In 2025 Coe testified at the second hearing of the House Oversight Committee's "Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets".[21]

Personal life

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Coe was raised in Los Angeles, California. She moved to New York to go to Columbia and Sarah Lawrence. She has written about her grandparents, who helped raise her.[22] She cared for her grandmother at the end of her life.[23] Coe shared a birthday with her maternal grandfather, who is her daughter's namesake.[24] She has an older brother.[23]

Coe lives in New York with her young daughter.[25][26][27]

Bibliography

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References

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  1. ↑ Alice and Frida Forever. Kirkus Reviews.
  2. ↑ "How historian Alexis Coe handles being the only woman in the room". TODAY. 8 July 2020. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
  3. 1 2 Egan, Elisabeth (2020-02-27). "Think You Know George Washington?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-05-20.
  4. ↑ Ansley, Laura (2020-10-22). "Expanding the Genre: Alexis Coe Writes an Accessible Washington Biography". Perspectives on History.
  5. ↑ Wagner, Tony (2020-02-13). "Alexis Coe didn't realize all of the opportunities a history major brings". Marketplace. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  6. 1 2 Shribman, David. "In 'You Never Forget Your First,' Alexis Coe offers a fresh look at a president without precedent - The Boston Globe". BostonGlobe.com. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  7. ↑ Coe, Alexis (2023-02-17). "Opinion | George Washington Would Hate Presidents' Day". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  8. ↑ Coe, Alexis (2013-03-04). "How Do Children of Gay Parents Feel About Getting Married?". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  9. ↑ Coe, Alexis (2022-10-03). "What Being Unpopular Does to a First-Term President". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  10. ↑ Coe, Alexis (2017-11-22). "What the Least Fun Founding Father Can Teach Us Now". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
  11. ↑ Coe, Alexis (2017-02-16). "Letter of Recommendation: Presidential Biographies". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
  12. ↑ "Books to Watch Out For: October". The New Yorker. 2014-10-02. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
  13. ↑ "A Conversation with Alexis Coe on You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington". lbjpodcast.com. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  14. 1 2 Feller, Madison (November 16, 2018). "The Wing's New Podcast Wants to Rewrite Women's History". ELLE. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  15. ↑ "The Wing's No Man's Land Podcast". Webby Awards. Retrieved December 7, 2025.
  16. ↑ Quah, Nicholas (December 20, 2018). "No Man's Land Explores the Forgotten Stories of Women's History". Vulture. Retrieved March 15, 2019.
  17. ↑ Andrews, Becca. "To know George Washington is not necessarily to love him. Just ask historian Alexis Coe". Mother Jones. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  18. ↑ "You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe: 9780735224117 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved 2023-02-01.
  19. ↑ "This Historian Could Change How You Think About George Washington". NowThis News. Retrieved 2023-04-20.
  20. ↑ Trump indictment a first in American politics, 4 April 2023, retrieved 2023-04-23
  21. ↑ Whiteside, Steph (20 May 2025). "Witnesses accuse CIA of obstructing JFK investigations". NewsNation.
  22. ↑ "I Think About This a Lot: This Photo of a Family Arriving at Ellis Island". 2 July 2018.
  23. 1 2 Coe, Alexis (March 4, 2014). "Grandma's Proxy". The Hairpin. Archived from the original on May 20, 2022.
  24. ↑ "Chernow Gonna Chernow". 30 January 2021.
  25. ↑ "BIO".
  26. ↑ "The Duncan & Coe History Show: Season Zero Episode Zero". sites.libsyn.com. Retrieved 2024-11-04.
  27. ↑ "Case 2022-52851 Alexis Coe V. Anthony Lydgate - Trellis: Legal Intelligence + Judicial Analytics".
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