Ron Chernow

In 1990, Chernow published his first book, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance, which traces the history of four generations of the J.P. Morgan financial empire.[10] The reviewer for The New York Times Book Review said, "As a portrait of finance, politics and the world of avarice and ambition on Wall Street, the book has the movement and tension of an epic novel. It is, quite simply, a tour de force."[11] The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance was honored with the National Book Award for Nonfiction.[3]

In 1993, Chernow published The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family, which is an account of the Warburg family, who immigrated to the US from Germany in 1838. The Warburg family was a prominent financial dynasty of German Jewish descent, known for their accomplishments in physics, classical music, art history, pharmacology, physiology, finance, private equity and philanthropy. The book was awarded the Columbia Business School's George S. Eccles Prize for Excellence in Economic Writing. It was additionally named as one of the year's ten best works by the American Library Association[12] and a Notable Book by The New York Times.

Chernow's 1997 collection of essays, The Death of the Banker, touched upon his earlier writings and chronicled "the decline and fall of the great financial dynasties and the triumph of the small investor" (to quote its subtitle).

External video
Booknotes interview with Chernow on Titan, June 21, 1998, C-SPAN
Presentation by Chernow on Alexander Hamilton, May 26, 2004, C-SPAN
Washington Journal interview with Chernow on Alexander Hamilton, June 18, 2004, C-SPAN
Discussion with Chernow on his experiences as consultant on the play Hamilton, February 25, 2016, C-SPAN
Q&A interview with Chernow on Alexander Hamilton and Hamilton: The Musical, April 24, 2016, C-SPAN
Part one of Q&A interview with Chernow on Washington: A Life, October 2, 2010, C-SPAN
Part two of Q&A interview with Chernow on Washington: A Life, October 9, 2010, C-SPAN
Presentation by Chernow on Washington: A Life, November 21, 2010, C-SPAN
Q&A interview with Chernow on Grant, November 5, 2017, C-SPAN
Presentation by Chernow on Grant, September 1, 2018, C-SPAN

In 1998, Chernow published the 774-page Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., which was selected by Time and The New York Times as one of the year's ten best books. A prominent figure in American business history, Rockefeller was an industrialist, philanthropist, and the founder of the Standard Oil Company. The book reflected Chernow's continued interest in financial history, especially when shaped by compelling and influential individuals. The book remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 16 weeks. Time called it "one of the great American biographies".[13]

In 2004, Chernow published Alexander Hamilton. The biography was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award[14] and was named as the winner of the inaugural George Washington Book Prize for early American history.[15] It remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for three months. In his review for the Journal of American History, Stephen B. Presser, who is professor of business law emeritus at Northwestern University,[16] wrote:

This book is one of those happy rarities: a popular biography that should also delight scholars. ...This is the kind of synthetic narrative history and biography that is rarely done to such high standards and is clearly one of the best introductions to the American formative era available. Moreover, the way Chernow integrates international affairs, domestic politics, economic and constitutional theory, and astute psychological analysis is nothing short of wondrous.[17]

The biography was adapted into a Tony award-winning musical, Hamilton, by Lin-Manuel Miranda, which opened on Broadway in August 2015. Chernow served as historical consultant to the production.[18]

Chernow's 904-page Washington: A Life was released on October 5, 2010 (ISBN 978-1-59420-266-7). It won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography[19][20] and the American History Book Prize. Professor Gordon S. Wood, renowned scholar of the Founding era, wrote:[21]

[T]he best, most comprehensive, and most balanced single-volume biography of Washington ever written.... One comes away from the book feeling that Washington has finally become comprehensible.... [Chernow's] understanding of human nature is extraordinary and that is what makes his biography so powerful.[22]

In 2011, Chernow signed a deal to write a comprehensive biography on Ulysses S. Grant.[23] Chernow explained his transition from writing about George Washington to Grant: "Makes some sense as progression. Towering general of Revolution to towering general of Civil War. Both two-term presidents, though with very different results."[24] Grant was released on October 10, 2017, and the biography strongly argues against the conventional wisdom that Grant was an "adequate president, a dull companion and a roaring drunk."[25] The book received overwhelmingly positive reviews and was named by The New York Times as one of the 10 Best Books of 2017.[26]

• Chernow, Ron (1990). The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-71031-6.
• ———— (1995). The Warburgs: A Family Saga. Pimlico. ISBN 978-0-7126-6210-9.
• ———— (1997). The Death of the Banker: The Decline and Fall of the Great Financial Dynasties and the Triumph of the Small Investor. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0-375-70037-8.
• ———— (1998). Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller. Warner. ISBN 978-0-7515-2667-7.
• ———— (2005). Alexander Hamilton. Penguin Press. ISBN 978-1-101-20085-8.
• ———— (2010). Washington: A Life. Penguin Press. ISBN 978-1-101-44418-4.
• ———— (2017). Grant. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-1-59420-487-6.

• Chernow, Ron (April 1974). "John Ford: The Last Frontiersman". Ramparts. Vol. 12. pp. 45–48.