A biographer with an interest in United States history, Ron Chernow received a bachelor's degree in English from Yale University and a master’s degree in English literature from Cambridge University. He worked as a freelance journalist and at a public policy research non-profit, the Twentieth Century Fund, now called The Century Foundation, which has progressive political leanings.

His first biographical work was the book The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance. Since then, he has written a series of biographies on major American political and business figures. His most famous work is his biography Alexander Hamilton, in no small part because it inspired the popular 2015 musical Hamilton.

Born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, Ulysses S. Grant went on to become one of the most famous generals of the American Civil War. He fought on the side of the Union and eventually became the commander of all Union forces. Famously, he and the Confederate commander Robert E. Lee made the agreement at Appomattox Court House that ended the war.

Riding high on his fame from the Civil War, in 1868 Grant was elected the 18th president of the United States, representing the Republican Party.