when ron chernow was writing his book, he interviewed me about dueling, i thought, it is probably fornversations with him. and then there is the line about the doctor on the dueling ground, turning his back so he can have deniability. that's from a document i found in the new york historical society. when that happened, i thought, i think that is my chapter. [laughter] brian: did you deserve a cut of the action? joanne: for that bit of my chapter? no. but i at least got it confirmed. miranda i lin-manurel gave him a gift of "affairs of honor" to thank him for doing the play, he said, i have that already. i said, you do? was that song based on part of that book. he said yes. ok. my historian has a tiny bit of my book sung on broadway. brian: we know the impact it's had on the country, but what impact has the musical had on your work? joanne: as a teacher, it has had a profound impact. because young people are now, not just fascinated by history, but early american history to a degree i have never seen before. so, obviously it is musical theater, so it is not 100% accurate, nor was it i

when ron chernow wrote his book, he asked me about the rules of dueling.there is this line about the doctor turning his back so he can have deniability. that's from a document i found in the bottom of a box, and when that line happened, i thought that is my chapter. i did get it confirmed. brian: do you deserve a cut of the action? joanne: [laughter] no. but i did at least get it confirmed. when i met miranda and i gave him a gift of "affairs of honor" to thank him for doing the play, he said, i have that already. i said, you do? was that song based on part of that book? he said yes. a tiny part of my book is being sung on broadway. brian: we know the impact it's had on the country, but what impact has the musical had on your work? joanne: as a teacher, it has had a profound impact. because young people are now, not just fascinated by history, but early american history to a degree i have never seen before. so, obviously it is musical theater, so it is not 100% accurate, nor was it intended to be. but by getting students, and students of all ages, i have s

even ron chernow is writing a grant biography. we know when the big names come in that someone is now seem to be right for revision but the revisions been going on for about 25 years. so there really come in due the end. i notice a lot of those people are into talk about how they rehabilitate grant, how the elevated him. it's not my objective. my objective is to make you understand what ulysses s. grant was about, what he did, the things they did that we may find raise worthy, some of the things he did we may find questionable, the strengths and weaknesses. in that sense the people i study i can identify with them at certain times, at other times if i had them in the room i would say what were you thinking? why did you do that? and so i don't see myself as somebody who is there to raise grant a few pegs on something, on somebody's scale of greatness but i do see myself as saying this is what grant was about and i think in that way. i tried to be very fair and try to be dispassionate. i don't try to be enamored or hypercritical. on

what was it like watching your primary, authoritative work being made into a broadway show and ron chernowot all of the attention? joanne: [laughter] his biography was the basis of the show. but it was surprising to see a show for the first time, i saw it off-broadway at the time in the public theater. i knew this person was writing a play, a musical about alexander hamilton, i had found a way when he was writing the book to give him my library of america collection of hamilton's letters. i figured, there will not be two musicals of alexander hamilton in my lifetime, and i wanted his words in it. the library of america is a nonprofit organization that is basically about keeping great american letters in literature in print. they produce wonderful volumes and have been doing it quite some time. wonderful quality, and to keep america's culture alive, in a way. they do it for literary characters, and also political figures. there is an alexander hamilton volume i edited. it is about 800 pages of what i consider to be the most important and most revealing letters of hamilton's 27 volumes. that