He is most widely known for a series of biographies of America's founders, including Alexander Hamilton, Gouverneur Morris, and George Washington.

[1] His father worked for Eastman Kodak in Rochester and was a lieutenant in the Army Air Corps during World War II.

Although admitted to Yale Law School, Brookhiser went to work full-time for National Review in 1977; by the time he was 23, he was a senior editor, the youngest in the magazine's history.

[3][5] In 2008, President George W. Bush awarded Brookhiser the National Humanities Medal in a White House ceremony.

[6] "My support for medical marijuana is not a contradiction of my principles, but an extension of them," Brookhiser told the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime.

"[6] He lives in Manhattan[6] (East Village) with his wife, Jeanne Safer, a psychotherapist and author, most recently, of The Normal One.