About John A. Ragosta

Dr. John Ragosta is a historian, lawyer, and beekeeper living in Charlottesville, Virginia.

He is currently the interim director and historian at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies (ICJS) at Monticello and a fellow at Virginia Humanities. His work in history has focused primarily on the foundations of religious freedom in America, constitutional law and history, the Revolutionary War, and the early republic.

He has taught U.S., constitutional, religious, and Native American history at Hamilton, Oberlin, and Randolph Colleges, and the University of Virginia, and law (international trade and dispute settlement) at the University of Virginia and George Washington University. He has held fellowships with the Jack Miller Center – Colonial Williamsburg (2017), the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (Robert C. Vaughan Fellow, 2013-2014), and ICJS (Gilder Lehrman Junior Research Fellow, 2010-2011).

In 2023, the University of Virginia Press will be releasing his For the People, For the Country: Patrick Henry’s Final Political Battle, a topic on which he will be speaking regularly. His previous book, Patrick Henry: Proclaiming a Revolution, was released by Routledge Press in late 2016 and is the basis for a MOOC (massive open online course) being sponsored by the University of Virginia and the Patrick Henry Memorial Foundation. He has also written several important books on the development of American religious freedom: Religious Freedom: Jefferson’s Legacy, America’s Creed (UVA Press, 2013) and Wellspring of Liberty: How Virginia’s Religious Dissenters Helped Win the American Revolution & Secured Religious Liberty (Oxford University Press, 2010). Among his edited volumes are works on the founding of the University of Virginia — The Founding of Thomas Jefferson’s University — and European involvement in the American Revolution — European Friends of the American Revolution. Dr. Ragosta has published on a broad range of topics in historical, legal, and scientific journals as well as often providing OpEds to leading newspapers. 

Before returning to academia to receive his PhD in early American/legal history, Dr. Ragosta was an international trade and litigation partner at Dewey Ballantine LLP, one of the youngest partners in the history of the firm. He was deeply engaged in World Trade Organization, NAFTA, and other issues for the U.S. lumber, steel, semiconductor, motion picture and cable, and satellite launch industries. He was the lead counsel for the U.S. lumber industry in its long-standing effort to address injury from Canadian lumber subsidies and led the team seeking to redress steel subsidies from a number of our trading partners. He also represented U.S. industries in numerous international negotiations.

Dr. Ragosta’s undergraduate degree was a Bachelor of Science in physics-chemistry with a double major in philosophy. He has been inducted into student leadership, academic, theater, physics, and chemistry honorary associations.

John was raised in rural western Pennsylvania, one of eleven children. With his children pursuing careers elsewhere, he and his wife now live in Charlottesville where they keep bees in their expanding gardens.

Please don’t hesitate to contact Dr. Ragosta with questions or comments.