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Alexander Hamilton Paperback – Illustrated, March 29, 2005
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The #1 New York Times bestseller, and the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton!
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation.
"Grand-scale biography at its best—thorough, insightful, consistently fair, and superbly written . . . A genuinely great book." —David McCullough
“A robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all." —Joseph Ellis
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.
9780143034759
- Print length818 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPenguin Books
- Publication dateMarch 29, 2005
- Dimensions9.1 x 5.9 x 1.8 inches
- ISBN-100143034758
- ISBN-13978-0143034759
- Lexile measure1280L
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Editorial Reviews
Review
". . . [A] biography commensurate with Hamilton's character, as well as the full, complex context of his unflaggingly active life.... This is a fine work that captures Hamilton's life with judiciousness and verve." —Publishers Weekly
"A splendid life of an enlightened reactionary and forgotten Founding Father. Literate and full of engaging historical asides. By far the best of the many lives of Hamilton now in print, and a model of the biographer’s art." —Kirkus Reviews (starred)
"A robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all." —Joseph J. Ellis, author of Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation
"A brilliant historian has done it again! The thoroughness and integrity of Ron Chernow’s research shines forth on every page of his Alexander Hamilton. He has created a vivid and compelling portrait of a remarkable man—and at the same time he has made a monumental contribution to our understanding of the beginnings of the American Republic.” —Robert A. Caro, author of The Power Broker and The Years of Lyndon Johnson
"Alexander Hamilton was one of the most brilliant men of his brilliant time, and one of the most fascinating figures in all of American history. His rocketing life-story is utterly amazing. His importance to the founding of the new nation, and thus to the whole course of American history, can hardly be overstated. And so Ron Chernow's new Hamilton could not be more welcome. This is grand-scale biography at its best—thorough, insightful, consistently fair, and superbly written. It clears away more than a few shop-worn misconceptions about Hamilton, gives credit where credit is due, and is both clear-eyed and understanding about its very human subject. Its numerous portraits of the complex, often conflicting cast of characters are deft and telling. The whole life and times are here in a genuinely great book." —David McCullough, author of John Adams
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The news reached New York within four days and a mood of insurrection promptly overtook the city. People gathered at taverns and street corners to ponder events while Tories quaked. The newly emboldened Sons of Liberty streamed down to the East River docks, pilfered ships bound for British troops in Boston, then emptied the city hall arsenal of its muskets, bayonets, and cartridge boxes, grabbing a thousand weapons in all.
Armed with this cache, volunteer militia companies sprang up overnight. However much the British might deride these ragtag citizen-soldiers, they conducted their business seriously. Inflamed by the astonishing news from Massachusetts, Alexander Hamilton, then a student at King’s College (later Columbia University), was that singular intellectual who picked up a musket as fast as a pen. Nicholas Fish recalled that “immediately after the Battle of Lexington, [Hamilton] attached himself to one of the uniform companies of militia then forming for the defence of the country by the patriotic young men of this city under the command of Captain Fleming.” Fish and Robert Troup, both classmates of Hamilton, were among the earnest cadre of King’s College volunteers who drilled before classes each morning in the churchyard of nearby St. Paul’s Chapel. The fledgling volunteer company was named the Hearts of Oak. The young recruits marched briskly past tombstones with the motto of “Liberty or Death” stitched across their round leather caps. On short, snug green jackets they also sported, for good measure, red tin hearts that announced “God and our Right.”
Hamilton approached this daily routine with the same perfectionist ardor that he exhibited in his studies. Troup stressed the “military spirit” infused into Hamilton and noted that he was “constant in his attendance and very ambitious of improvement.” Never one to fumble an opportunity, Hamilton embarked on a comprehensive military education. With his absorbent mind, he mastered infantry drills, pored over volumes on military tactics and learned the rudiments of gunnery and pyrotechnics from a veteran bombardier. There was a particular doggedness about this young man, as if he were already in training for something far beyond lowly infantry duty.
On April 24, a huge throng of patriots massed in front of city hall. While radicals grew giddy with excitement, many terrified Tory merchants began to book passage for England. The next day, an anonymous handbill blamed Myles Cooper, the Tory president of King’s College, and four other “obnoxious gentlemen” for patriotic deaths in Massachusetts and said the moment had passed for symbolic gestures. “The injury you have done to your country cannot admit of reparation,” these five loyalists were warned. “Fly for your lives or anticipate your doom by becoming your own executioners.” A defiant Myles Cooper stuck to his post.
After a demonstration on the night of May 10, hundreds of protesters, armed with clubs and heated by a heady brew of political rhetoric and strong drink, descended on King’s College, ready to inflict rough justice on Myles Cooper. Hercules Mulligan recalled that Cooper “was a Tory and an obnoxious man and the mob went to the college with the intention of tarring and feathering him or riding him upon a rail.” Nicholas Ogden, a King’s alumnus, saw the angry mob swarming toward the college and raced ahead to Cooper’s room, urging the president to scramble down a back window. Because Hamilton and Troup shared a room near Cooper’s quarters, Ogden also alerted them to the approaching mob. “Whereupon Hamilton instantly resolved to take his stand on the stairs [the outer stoop] in front of the Doctor’s apartment and there to detain the mob as long as he could by an harangue in order to gain the Doctor the more time for his escape,” Troup recorded.
After the mob knocked down the gate and surged toward the residence, Hamilton launched into an impassioned speech, telling the boisterous protesters that their conduct, instead of promoting their cause, would “disgrace and injure the glorious cause of liberty.” One account has the slightly deaf Cooper poking his head from an upper-story window and observing Hamilton gesticulating on the stoop below. He mistakenly thought that his pupil was inciting the crowd instead of pacifying them and shouted, “Don’t mind what he says. He’s crazy!” Another account has Cooper shouting at the ruffians: “Don’t believe anything Hamilton says. He’s a little fool!” The more plausible version is that Cooper had vanished, having scampered away in his nightgown once Ogden forewarned him of the approaching mob.
Hamilton knew he couldn’t stop the intruders but he won the vital minutes necessary for Cooper to clamber over a back fence and rush down to the Hudson. Of all the incidents in Hamilton’s early life in America, his spontaneous defense of Myles Cooper was probably the most telling. It showed that he could separate personal honor from political convictions and presaged a recurring theme of his career: the superiority of forgiveness over revenge. Most of all, the episode captured the contradictory impulses struggling inside this complex young man, an ardent revolutionary with a profound dread that popular sentiment would boil over into dangerous excess.
Product details
- Publisher : Penguin Books (March 29, 2005)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 818 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0143034758
- ISBN-13 : 978-0143034759
- Lexile measure : 1280L
- Item Weight : 2.16 pounds
- Dimensions : 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #9,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #66 in Military Leader Biographies
- #72 in United States Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author
Ron Chernow won the National Book Award in 1990 for his first book, The House of Morgan, and his second book, The Warburgs, won the Eccles Prize as the Best Business Book of 1993. His biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Titan, was a national bestseller and a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.
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Chernow’s story begins well before Hamilton’s birth with a history of his maternal family in the sweltering slave society of St. Croix in the Caribbean. Hamilton was born the natural son of a Scottish noble and a socially disgraced divorcee. His natural talents evident from a young age, Hamilton nonetheless suffered a tragic childhood that left him a penniless yet hot-blooded orphan with a dismal view of human nature and hunger for glory and prestige. Despite these miserable origins, Hamilton migrated north to college in an America poised to explode into rebellion. Hamilton’s remarkable oratory and writing skills along with his impressive work ethic and organizational talent allowed him to insert himself into the nascent uprising. A rising star, he caught the eye of a certain General Washington and became the central cog of his wartime staff and began perhaps the most impactful partnership in the fledgling nation. Though frustrated with riding a desk as others rode into battle, the ambition Hamilton nonetheless proves himself vocal and talented enough to win glory at Yorktown before the war’s end.
After settling in New York with a wife and children, the firmly principled and stubborn Hamilton entered the roiling world of New York politics. Quickly becoming frustrated with the incompetence of the Articles of Confederation and frustrated with George Clinton’s stranglehold on New York, Hamilton conspired with a young James Madison to call the Constitutional Convention. Though he expressed some decidedly undemocratic sentiments that would haunt him the rest of his life. Hamilton’ fifty-nine contributions to the eighty-seven essays of the Federalist Papers made Hamilton the preeminent voice of the Federalists and poised him to aid in the new government’s construction. Washington’s appointment of him as Secretary of the Treasury made him more responsible than any other man in actualizing the Constitution. Washington’s auspices allowed Hamilton, sensitive to attack and unskilled at subtle political intrigue, to steamroll the Jeffersonian opposition to his expansive and powerful centralized government. In doing so, Hamilton won near-total success but sowed the seeds of this later fall with his inability to answer a challenge with silence. His political fortunes waned as his sexual infidelities came to light and his many political enemies broke his poise and dismantled his support. Chernow’s extensive construction of Hamilton’s character and principles explains exactly how forty-nine-year-old Hamilton came to meet his end in a duel with Aaron Burr.
Chernow expertly crafts Hamilton as an ambitious, talented and pugnacious man with much to prove through his letters and actions. He also depicts Hamilton as principled and deeply spiritual as well as a flirtatious man possessing a large sexual appetite. Though the biography succeeds spectacularly in establishing Hamilton’s importance as well as his historical merit, Chernow’s chronicle still falls prey to a small but noticeable set of shortcomings. Most prominent among the shortcomings is his sometimes-anachronistic word choice, such as his repeated description of Hamilton as an “abolitionist” despite the nonexistence of abolitionism until at least fifteen years after his death. Chernow also frequently closes sections with speculation without the proper backing of historical evidence. These flaws do little derail this otherwise exemplary biography as Chernow more than makes up for his occasional flaws in historical writing in some areas with overwhelming success in almost all others.
Chernow's biography proves itself a remarkable summation of the life and character of one of America’s, both contemporarily and historically, most important and polarizing figures. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in learning about the founding fathers and the genesis of America’s governmental and economic success.
Chernow has yet again (I equally loved "Titan" and "House of Morgan") written a thoroughly researched and gripping biography. Thank you.
Hamilton's energy, intellect and ambition seep through practically every page. As do his contradictions, impatience, sensitivities occasional hypocrisy. Like others I was put off by the length (and small point size) and weight of the book. I actually found it easier to read on Kindle. I can't say I found any slow parts and the drama leading up to and through the duel with Burr is captivating.
Some commentators think Chernow was too much of a fan of Hamilton's. I think to write a book of such depth you need to be truly interested if not obsessed with your subject. But where he compares Hamilton to Jefferson, Adams, Washington, Burr or others I think he brings enough evidence and directly quoted source material to back up his descriptions and accounts both good and bad. I think Chernow gives very rich descriptions of the main characters in Hamilton's life. His descriptions of his wife Eliza and her family are as fully rounded and deep as those of the Founding Fathers. Where Hamilton's actions were inexplicable, stupid, arrogant or misguided I believe the readers were equally treated to Hamilton's flaws.
Jefferson does come across rather badly. But maybe he should. The evidence of his "relationship" with Sally Hemmings raises deep questions about his moral compass. He was a callous slave owner whose lifestyle was completely subsidized by their work and suffering. Some may argue that "that was the times" but I think there's plenty of evidence that other leaders of the time were realizing how evil slavery was and doing something about it. Hamilton was one of them.
At the core I appreciated and learned so much about how the Revolution was fought. The aftermath of uncertainty that lead to the Constitutional Congress and the critical role the Federalist Papers played in explaining the government to the people along with Hamilton's leadership of the US Treasury to truly construct a durable government. Chernow's "real time" descriptions add to the drama. You feel the uncertainty of events and the perilousness of the times as they must have felt.
I always reflect on some of the great people on history on how they are able to do so much. Aside from not watching tv I think the biggest contributor is the neglect of their families. For all of Hamilton's professed love of family he really is an absentee father as were both Roosevelts and many others. I think it gets glossed over that in an earlier time fathers had a nice put option on family obligations. The duel with Burr was the ultimate selfish act which cannot be forgiven. As his son had already died by the same route why couldn't Hamilton have written something reflective to Burr in response to the challenge? He has a wife and seven children, the youngest was 2. It was pride ahead of family in my view. Chernow captures it well and puts you at the scene.
Well its a great book. I am intimated by the amount of source material which was obviously very thoroughly read. Like any great book it should lead a reader to seek out other books. I cannot wait for Chernow's biography on George Washington due in October!
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Ho letto più libri di Ron Chernow, un maestro di biografie.
Anche questa su Alexander Hamilton conferma la grande accuratezza nella ricerca delle fonti storiche, descrivendo la storia di quello che molto probabilmente, con George Washington, è stato il più grande Founding Father degli USA, con dovizia di particolari che rendono la lettura interessante, sempre più avvincente in un crescendo irresistibile.
Altri maestri come David McCullough e Joseph Ellis hanno celebrato questo libro, confermando, se ce ne fosse bisogno, quale straordinaria opera abbia partorito la mente di Chernow.
Imperdibile.
First let’s appreciate the skills of the biographer. His subject was a great man with eloquence and many talents. His breath of knowledge and knowhow few could match, covering first and foremost law, then finance and economics, military administration and tactics, and science of government. He was “a thinker and doer”, “unashamedly brainy to appeal to the masses” (p.627). He was a visionary, well ahead of his time, and a fierce pioneer, who was effective in meticulously forging a way to turn his vision into reality. He laid down the constitutional framework and built the federal financial system – institutional infrastructure needed for the flourishing of this modern market economy when America was still a largely rural economy. He was a powerful steam engine spearheading towards a future that only few could see. When he was so far ahead of time, he found himself a lone voice in the wilderness. He was given the opportunity and he did not squander it but made something out it – he could because he was full of ideas. Proposals after proposals, he never lost sight of his vision. He tried to explain but out of self-interest or out of their wildest imagination, he invited critics and suspicions all his life. He put his head down as the doer, but calumnies plagued his whole career. For a man of honour, he fought many battles to clear his reputation. Sadly he “was villainized in American history textbooks as an apologist of privilege and wealth” (p. 629) which was quite the opposite to who he was – a self-made man, a fervent abolitionist and a staunch believer in meritocracy.
Hamilton was a prolific writer; he incessantly published papers, official reports, pamphlets, essays, newspaper articles. In addition, there were private papers and letters. Because his life intertwined with so many prominent figures of the time, one can imagine the colossal volume of materials to sieve through and sort for the biography, which demonstrates the biographer’s excellent organisational skills. The end product flows smoothly as if without effort. Secondly, I am most impressed by the versatility of the biographer’s writing skill. A biographer is naturally a narrator. However, Hamilton is a challenging subject as the biographer is required to make lucid many varied technical details of his pioneer thinking in historical critical moments that shaped the world, such as the development and debate on the Constitution, Hamilton’s federal fiscal and financial system and its opposition, the development of political thoughts for a new country, in particular the inner conflict of Hamilton if a republican government could deliver a proper balance of liberty and order. I believe the biographer has done a marverllous job in introducing us to the controversies that Hamilton was embroiled in.
But my biggest enjoyment of this biography is probably not the intent of the biographer! It reads to me the redemptive story of Hamilton – his testimony of God! To me who shares his faith, it is an exhilarating read to see the providence of God working marvellously in his life. His life, plainly and faithfully told by the biographer, speaks for itself. Things that the biographer finds puzzling, like Hamilton’s injudicious behaviour in the whole Reynolds Affair at the height of his power and fame, his vision for the army during the Quasi-War with France in 1798-1800, the “execrable” idea of the Christian Constitutional Society, and his preoccupation with religion in his final years, make sense if one understands the challenges of Christian walk. For example, I see striking parallels in David sinning with Bathsheba and Hamilton sinning with Reynolds – the injudicious behaviour, the coverup and the subsequent compulsion to confess when exposed. His many inner struggles also makes perfect sense in the light of the Bible.
I find his dying scene particularly moving for its gospel light. When Eliza was called to his deathbed following the duel with Burr, Hamilton’s words of comfort to her were, “Remember, my Eliza, you are a Christian.” Do we feel the weightiness of that name? He was entreating her to live like one worthy of that call. However powerful, influential and capable he was on earth, at his deathbed, he could promise nothing except to point Eliza to their Almighty God who is greater than he, loves her more perfectly and in whom their hope is found. He died a repentant sinner, having “a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He repeated to the Bishop present that “he was dying in a peaceful state, and that he was reconciled to his God and his fate.” On our measures, it was a tragic end to a great man’s life, but God single-handedly turned it into a good ending of eternal hope that we all share.
Burr, on the other hand, was a contrast to Hamilton. Both were orphaned from a young age. Who was more likely to be a principled and religious man with integrity from family background? I imagine it would have been Burr because he was the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, the renowned American theologian of all time, while Hamilton was illegitimate. But then Burr was “a dissipated, libidinous character” and “had been openly accused of every conceivable sin: deflowering virgins, breaking up marriages through adultery, forcing women into prostitution, accepting bribes, fornicating with slaves, looting the estates of legal clients. The grandson of theologian Jonathan Edwards had sampled many forbidden fruits (p. 682).” He lived to 77 while Hamilton died in his hand at the age of 49 in the infamous duel. What memory did he leave? “The death mask of Aaron Burr is haunting and unforgettable, with the nose twisted to the left, the mouth crooked, and the expression grotesque, as if all the suppressed pain of his life were engraved in his face by the end. John Quincy Adams left this epitaph of the man: “Burr’s life take it all together, was such as in any country of sound morals his friends would be desirous of burying in profound oblivion.” (p.722)” What biblical doctrine does it shine out for us? Election of God’s people – i.e. they are chosen by God and not the other way round.
How does the biographer achieve telling all these without it being intentional? He seeks to tell the story faithfully and authentically and comprehensively, and the story will speak for itself.