Reading: Alexander Hamilton

readerskitchen
Dec 28, 2015
2 min read

"A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous." - Alexander Hamilton

I've finally gotten a chance to tackle this book and I'm so pleased that I did. I'm a big fan of Chernow's business-like story telling style and enjoyed it when reading Washington earlier this year. I've wanted to read Alexander Hamilton since seeing they play last August. I've raved about the play enough times on this blog, so this post will be (as best as I can) focused on the book.

Hamilton was one of the least known and most enterprising of the founding fathers of America. He started his life in extremely humble origins that would fill the pages of their own book, but on the strength of his mind, his writing, and his unshakable belief in his own importance, Hamilton rose beyond that to work alongside other founding fathers in shaping many of the institutions we take for granted today. Best known for the banking system, it's overlooked how instrumental Hamilton was to the revolution itself. Without his work on the Federalist Papers the constitution would likely never have been signed. His ideas on the organization of military power and creation of a military institute would be realized after he died.

The first half of the book focuses on Hamilton's hard work and meteoric rise. The second half of the book, like the second act of the play, is hard to bear as you watch Hamilton make blunder after blunder which ultimately lead to his death in a duel. Much of the reason that Hamilton isn't remembered well today is that the presidents who served during and after his death were people with whom Hamilton had often fought during his life. These were not men who were above pettiness and therefore did nothing to preserve or honor Hamilton's memory.

That's why it's wonderful that now, all these years later, we continue to remember him and discuss him. This is due in equal parts to Lin Manuel Miranda, whose brilliant mind is an echo of Hamilton's, and Ron Chernow, the man who inspired this story in Miranda's mind.

4 stars