Alexander Hamilton
Ratings103
Average rating4.4
From National Book Award winner Ron Chernow, a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation.In the first full-length biography of Alexander Hamilton in decades, National Book Award winner Ron Chernow tells the riveting story of a man who overcame all odds to shape, inspire, and scandalize the newborn America. According to historian Joseph Ellis, Alexander Hamilton is "a robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all."Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow's biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today's America is the result of Hamilton's countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. "To repudiate his legacy," Chernow writes, "is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world." Chernow here recounts Hamilton's turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington's aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.Historians have long told the story of America's birth as the triumph of Jefferson's democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power. His is a Hamilton far more human than we've encountered before—from his shame about his birth to his fiery aspirations, from his intimate relationships with childhood friends to his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, and Burr, and from his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds to his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza. And never before has there been a more vivid account of Hamilton's famous and mysterious death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July of 1804.Chernow's biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the story of America's birth seen through its most central figure. At a critical time to look back to our roots, Alexander Hamilton will remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans.
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2016: The year of Hamilton. I am so glad I decided to read this book after seeing the musical in May - it deepened my appreciation for Hamilton and for the founding story of the United States. The success of the American project was never assured, and no book or history lesson ever made that clearer than this one did. This is an ambitious read - 731 pages of small, dense, type. It took me two and a half months to finish (although I read the bulk of it within the past half month). In a way I'm glad for this - I feel like the lessons and content will stick with me much longer because I have kept coming back to them.
Meticulously researched, the book is brimming with details about Hamilton's life, combined in a way which (according to the author) depicts Hamilton very differently than previous biographers have ever done. Hamilton's legacy was overlooked or minimized by many in the past, probably because he never attained the office of the President.
My favorite part of the book was immediate the post-revolution period, as the country tried to figure out what it wanted to be: a loose confederation of states, or a united nation. I hadn't realized that the Constitution came so long after the war ended, and was never assured. Hamilton's role in the political theorizing that led directly to our current governmental structure was massive. Not only a theorist, he also made more contributions than anyone else to the government's implementation - setting up many of our first national institutions and defining the frameworks in which the different branches of power could be articulated. I was fascinated learning about the political and economic underpinnings of our current nation. You can trace a direct path between Hamilton's national bank, markets, and financial culture in New York City to today's world.
The book differed from the show in one large way. The show's main villain was Aaron Burr, whereas the book spent much more time expounding on the feud between Hamilton and the Virginians - Jefferson and Madison. I suspect this was mostly due to wanting to present a compelling show, with a single arch-villian. But it would be interesting to read a biography of Burr as a follow up here.
Hamilton's downfall is tough to watch, as it was largely self-imposed and coincided with an intensely vitriolic period of American politics. To watch this great man sink so low, get caught up in the petty sniping and accusations of the day, ultimately going so far as to cause his death, is brutal. I was left with the impression that, despite having an extramarital affair, the real cause of his political downfall was his inability to be political - his uncompromising principles, his desire to protect his legacy at all costs, and his growing difficulty as he aged in reconciling what the people wanted with what he thought was best for them.
An amazing book about an amazing man - the most prolific, intellectual founding father. It's so neat that this story is finally coming to light in a way that so many people can engage with it, deepening our appreciation for and understanding of our shared history.
This was fascinating, but also a bit of a slog - not because it was badly-written or boring or anything, just because it's 800+ pages (or 36+ hours, for the audiobook version). I definitely learned a ton about Alexander Hamilton and the Revolutionary era (and the transition from that to a functioning democracy), stuff I hadn't thought about since AP US History, probably. Would I have picked it up without the musical Hamilton? Probably not, but I'm glad I did. And I want a biography of Angelica Schuyler Church now, please. Audiobook is recommended - the reader is excellent and engaging, and seems to dislike Jefferson a lot, which is amusing.
(Grandfathered into my Year of No Men, because I started it before 1/1/16.)
(Bookriot Read Harder 2016 Challenge: #6 Read a biography (not memoir or autobiography) and #10 Read a book over 500 pages long)
This took me the better part of a month to read. It's exhaustive without being dry. This is my fifth founding father biography and I feel as though it explains the Federalist / Republican schism the best. Chernow also gives real depth to “minor” figures like Jay, Lafayette, Troup and all the other revolutionary heroes who can start to feel like little more than name drops in other biographies.
Hamilton is so fascinating and so flawed. Truly, no detail of his life was glossed over. And Washington is treated very fairly here as well. Chernow doesn't shy away from showcasing what a hot mess his second term was.
Absolutely worth reading. Come for celebration of Eliza Hamilton, stay for the Jefferson slander!
