Stephen Lee Mansfield is an American author whose specialty is faith and presidential politics. His books have appeared on the New York Times best-seller list, have been the basis of a popular movie and have been credited with helping to shape U.S. presidential elections. He is also a popular speaker, blogger and a regular commentator on cable news networks.
Mansfield was born in Columbus, Georgia, the son of a U.S. Army officer. His family lived on military posts around the United States, though the majority of his early years were spent in Germany, particularly in the Berlin of the Cold War years.
His first book, Never Give In: The Extraordinary Character of Winston Churchill, was released in 1995 and became an Evangelical Christian Press Association Gold Medallion Finalist. He followed this with biographies of Booker T. Washington and George Whitefield. In 1996, Governor Don Sundquist asked Mansfield to write the history of religion in Tennessee for that state’s bicentennial.
In 2003, Mansfield wrote The Faith of George W. Bush, which appeared on the New York Times bestseller list twice and was widely discussed during the 2004 presidential race between Bush and John Kerry. The book was popular because it explained Bush’s faith without evident partisanship and filled a gap in the popular understanding of his religious life. The book later became a source for the Oliver Stone film "W", which chronicled Bush’s rise to the presidency and the events of September 11, 2001.
