As America marks its 250th anniversary, few historians have done more to shape the way we understand the nation's founding than Ron Chernow. The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer has brought towering figures to life through acclaimed books on George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Ulysses S. Grant, and more recently, Mark Twain.
His biography of Hamilton inspired the Broadway phenomenon that introduced a new generation to the Founding Era, while his portrait of Washington remains a definitive account of the nation's first president. As the country reflects on its past, Chernow offers a unique perspective on the ideals, contradictions, and personalities that helped create the United States—and how those stories continue to resonate two and a half centuries later.
In 1876, as the United States marked its centennial amid lingering divisions from the Civil War, Philadelphia hosted a world’s fair unlike any the nation had ever seen. In 'Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America’s Future,' historian Fergus Bordewich explores how that six-month exposition introduced millions of Americans to transformative new technologies, global cultures, and a vision of modern progress.
Bordewich is an acclaimed historian and the author of 'Klan War,' 'The First Congress,' and 'Bound for Canaan.' His latest book reveals how one extraordinary event helped shape the economic, technological, and cultural future of the United States.
