Elliot Ashkenazi received his B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania, his J.D. from Harvard University Law School, and his Ph.D. in history from George Washington University. He has taught history at American, George Mason, and George Washington universities and was an associate editor of Documentary History of the Supreme Court, 1789–1800. Ashkenazi is the author of The Civil War Diary of Clara Solomon, Growing Up in New Orleans, 1861–1862 and The Business of Jews in Louisiana, 1840–1875.