Alexander Hamilton

Best Bestsellers bonus episode: http://www.frowl.org/worstbestsellers/episode-38-hamilton/

Is this getting a bonus star because of inspiring Hamilton the musical? YES PROBABLY my reviews are all subject to personal WHIMSY.

Anyway, I never would have picked this up if it weren't for Hamilton the musical. But Hamilton the musical wouldn't exist if it weren't for this book!

Chernow does a great job of fleshing out Hamilton as a smart, scrappy, irritating human being (with an A++++ wife, also a human being) as opposed to just, you know, the $10 bill guy.

Also he does a lot of careful work explaining code duello and why, at the time, it did not seem totally bonkers to just be duelin' all the time. But also, does not just casually let the founding fathers off the hook for slavery, which is something SOME biographers do.

I'd definitely recommend this to any fans of Hamilton the musical* to just kind of flesh out the musical and make you further appreciate all the work LMM did. It's an enjoyable, informative read and it's really only like, 700 pages because the last 100 is endnotes.

*if you are not a fan of Hamilton the musical, literally what are you doing