Ron Chernow
Washington: A Life is a biographical account of the first president of the United States, written by Ron Chernow, an American historian, biographer, and journalist whose work has drawn wide recognition across literary and scholarly circles.
Chernow was born on March 3, 1949, in Brooklyn. He was educated at Forest Hills High School before going on to study at Pembroke College and later at Yale University. Working as a journalist, author, and historian, he produced writing in English that engaged with American history and biography. Among his books are The House of Morgan and Alexander Hamilton, works that, alongside Washington: A Life, form a substantial part of his output as a biographer and historian.
The recognition his work has earned is considerable. Chernow received the National Book Award for Nonfiction, the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the National Humanities Medal, and the American History Book Prize. These honors, accumulated across his career, reflect the breadth of attention his writing has received from institutions concerned with both literature and history.
His three named books — The House of Morgan, Alexander Hamilton, and Washington: A Life — represent the range of his biographical and historical work. Each takes a significant figure or institution from American history as its subject. The American History Book Prize is among the honors that speak directly to his standing as a writer working within that historical tradition, and it remains one of the concrete markers of how his contributions have been formally acknowledged.
Quotes by Ron Chernow
Unless we know where we've been as a country, we don't know where we are or where we are going.
I always sympathize with people who complain about the length of my books. It would take me a year to get through one of them.
Politics boils down to the stories we tell ourselves. And unfortunately, we tell ourselves different stories.
It's a shameful thing to admit for someone who writes such long books, but I read so slowly that I almost subvocalize.
Hamilton was extremely combative. Not only was he combative, but he also overreacted to anything he perceived as a threat or a criticism.
Ultimately, the appraisal of Grant's presidency rests upon posterity's view of Reconstruction.
With any piece of writing, you're hoping that it will change something, and it seldom does.
Hamilton had a certain social versatility, and in a way, that is understandable because he's someone who rises up from the lowest rungs of society and then scales the top. And he gets to know people from every strata along the way.
