Alexander Hamilton (vuoden 2005 painos)

HUMUNGEOUS biography but very well written, lots of documentation, and thorough. Doesn't shy away from some of the puzzling aspects of Hamilton's choices, his weaknesses and blind spots, the underlying motivations to much of his political career and contributions. Glad I read it; but a real slog to get through it. ( )

I ended up mostly skimming through this looking for references to the musical... :-/ ( )

I have not had the opportunity to see the play Hamilton (since moving to Montana I don’t get to see as many plays as when I lived in New Jersey.) When it streamed I relished the chance to enjoy the sensation that everyone was exclaiming over. I thoroughly enjoyed the performances and have been listening to the Hamilton soundtrack ad nauseum. If you read my reviews you know I don’t cover much in the way of American history but have been wanting read more. I knew that the play didn’t hie to history so I figured I’d go to the source.

Let me first note that this book reads very easy; it’s like reading fiction which if you ask me is the most amazing thing you can write about a non fiction book. Especially one as weighty (in both senses of the word) as this. In noting that weight I will grant that this book is not going to be for everyone. I happen to love doorstopper books; I read very quickly so I enjoy a book that takes me more than a day to read. Also, history.

Not everyone goes gaga for the past but 98% of my reading takes place in times long ago so it’s a comfort zone. But I will say if you are looking for an in depth read about one of our Founding Fathers this is a good place to start. It is very – and I do mean very – pro Hamilton. Mr. Chernow loves his protagonist oftentimes to the point of ignoring his lessor angels. I do not doubt that Mr. Hamilton was an amazing man and astoundingly intelligent but he was not perfect. He was a bit obsessed with his place in society and I suspect probably a titch obnoxious.

All that being written I was engrossed in the book. I have noted many a time that I have not done much reading either fiction or non in the American history arena. I have decided to try and correct that this year. Hamilton is the lengthiest book on my reading list and the most educational. It has been a while since I’ve been in a classroom. But don’t take that to mean that reading this book is like reading a textbook because it’s not. Mr. Chernow really does bring the period and the people who inhabit it alive. I was never bored and I find that I want to find books on the other players in the time period.

Mr. Chernow obviously loves his Hamilton. You get that sense from the start and I am left wondering if this has left something unwritten. Hamilton was a brilliant man – of that there is no doubt – but does Mr. Chernow do him justice by not fully exploring his darker aspects? He was a man of his time and those times were very, very different than those in which we live now. He may not have liked slavery but as the current headlines attest, Mr. Hamilton was a participant in it. Does that change his impact on our history? I don’t know. How can we look at him through today’s lens?

All in all this was a very good read and I am very glad I spent the time with this Founding Father. While learning about him I also brushed up on some American history. ( )

Comprehensive history of an overlooked Founding Father, overlooked because he never became President I think. This biography follows him from his childhood as a bastard and orphan in the West Indies to New York, where he became Washington's right hand man both in the army during the Revolution and again as Treasury Secretary. In Chernow's telling, Hamilton is a truly American story, with no advantages of family or connections of any kind, who rose to the top of the early American polity solely by his tremendous intellect and powerful personality. Of course he was also a highly controversial figure, hated by the Jeffersonians who opposed his banking system and his support of tight relations with England after the Revolution.

The details of the politics of the time are fascinating and not well remembered (at least by me). The Jeffersonians were totally taken in by the French Revolution, and very slow to see the Reign of Terror for what it was, while Hamilton and the Federalists were more clear eyed.

Jefferson himself comes off very poorly, as a political schemer who outmaneuvers the less circumspect Hamilton as soon as Washington leaves the scene.

And of course there are the two major tabloid-level details of Hamilton's life: the first American sex scandal, as he is caught being unfaithful to his wife and paying blackmail money to hush it up, and of course his death in a duel at the hands of the sitting vice president, Aaron Burr.

This book apparently inspired the Lin Manuel Miranda play, and it is an inspiring life story. I wish this book, like the writings of David McCullough and other popular historians, were a little more concise- it can be a slog at times. Chernow wrote a biography or Ulysses S Grant that I liked better, though it was also long. ( )

Those taking an American newspaper will be familiar with the dull, detail-focused reporting style that contrasts with the excitable, frothy news media inflicted on us in Britain. Chernow adopts that worthy, evidence-based style here, so the 700+ pages can have a wearying effect. But the story is strong enough, as we all now know (thanks to Lin Manuel Miranda’s energetic but no less worthy musical), the life and times of founding father Alexander Hamilton. Impressive too that so much of those times is discoverable in the rich corpus of letters, pamphlets, bills, newspapers, lawsuits and more that chronicle the events and thoughts of this lively period. History had its eyes on them. ( )