Henry William Brands was born in Oregon, went to college in California, was a traveling salesman with territory that spanned the American West, earned graduate degrees in mathematics and history in Oregon and Texas, and has lived in Texas since the 1980s. He taught at Texas A&M University for sixteen years before joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is the Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History. ~ He writes on American history and politics, with books including Traitor to His Class, Andrew Jackson, The Age of Gold, The First American, and TR. Several of his books have been bestsellers; two, Traitor to His Class and The First American, were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. ~ He speaks regularly on historical and current events, and is a frequent guest on national and international radio and television programs. His writings have been translated into Spanish, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.