“Alexander Hamilton”, by Ron Chernow

818 pages, The Penguin Press, ISBN-13: 978-1594200090

So, there’s this thing out there called Hamilton: An American Musical by this guy called Lin-Manuel Miranda which is about the life of American Founding Father Alexander Hamilton and features both sung-and-rapped-through works telling the tale of one of America’s most important men and it was inspired while Miranda read this book Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Well, then, why not? All the hype that you have heard about this book is true: it is an outstanding, detailed biography that reveals the good (and the bad) character traits of arguably the most important figure in American History. The documents that Chernow uses to support his portrait make clear that without his vision, there very likely would not have been the centralized government that permitted the abolition of slavery, the development of a manufacturing based economy and a unified model of government that has endured. There is a decidedly eerie quality to the vicious, personal attacks between competing political partisans because it is so reminiscent of the current state of American politics. Finally, the gifted politician brought low by questionable judgment regarding sexual activities is a theme that is likewise a testament to the old saw that there is nothing new under the sun. Chernow doesn’t exclusively focus on one aspect of his career, nor heavily focus on any particular area of his life. Everything is included: from being orphaned in the Caribbean at a young age to being killed by Vice-President Burr in a duel. EVERYTHING is here.

Although there’s a lot of material to cover, Chernow works magic when transcribing the man’s life. The book seemed exciting, as though someone were telling me a fascinating story as opposed to simply recounting a famous person’s life. Quite often when writing such a detailed exposition, ennui often creeps in from time to time; an everyday life of a politician doesn’t necessarily relate to captivating reading, but, fortunately in this case, instances of boredom are rare (there was one time when I mentally dozed off for a few pages while the author explained in a tad too much detail how Hamilton’s central bank worked, but these instances were quite infrequent. Promise). I felt like I intimately knew so many of the many people who interacted, good and bad, with Alexander Hamilton – and believe you me there were a LOT of people that didn’t like this man, nor did he care for them. Particularly interesting is how the author treats Thomas Jefferson: had this been the only book you had ever read, you would come away with the notion that Jefferson was Satan incarnate. Equally unfavorable treatment goes to John Adams, James Madison and James Monroe (all early U.S. Presidents, coincidentally); in fact, outside of George Washington, you could argue that there wasn’t anyone around at the time of any importance that thought highly of Hamilton - of course, having George Washington on your side counteracts a lot of adversaries.

Chernow is quite biased in favor of his subject but, really now, it’s hard not to become besotted with this brilliant and prophetic Founding Father (hell, just ask Lin-Manuel Miranda). Oh sure, he points out many mistakes and deficiencies of Hamilton, but you end up firmly in the man’s corner, despite the squabbling with so many of the other Founders. The biggest source of discontent is Hamilton’s Federalism as opposed to Jefferson’s Republicanism (not to be confused with today’s iteration), which birthed our modern-day two-party system. Both ideologies have highlights, and to truly understand their significances one must truly imagine life directly after America’s independence is won (right, we’ve won our independence! Er, now what? We still need a centralized government to rule, right? At the time, many didn’t think so, even if such questions are easy to answer in hindsight). Hindsight also tells us that Hamilton was right about a great many things during our country’s infancy. I implore you to read this if you’re a fan of history. If you’re not a fan of history, I implore you to read it, anyway.