Jim Cullen was born in Queens, New York. He attended Tufts University and holds a PhD in American studies from Brown University. Jim taught at Harvard, Brown and Sarah Lawrence College before settling down for nineteen years at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York, where he served as chair of the Department of History and as a member of the board of trustees. Jim is the author of more than twenty books, including The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea that Shaped a Nation (2003), Bridge & Tunnel Boys: Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and the Metropolitan Sound of the American Century (2023) and Born in the U.S.A.: Bruce Springsteen in American Life (3rd ed., 2024).

His work has appeared in the Washington Post, TIME, Rolling Stone, Newsday (New York) Daily News, CNN.com, Forbes, the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History and other publications.