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gofoo95's review against another edition
4.0
What a fascinating person that was more involved than I knew in starting the United States
evaribaker's review against another edition
5.0
I can't remember the last time a book took me this long to read. There were times I dozed off reading it and times I had to give my brain a rest by reading fluff, but I'm glad I persevered. The story of Hamilton's life is fascinating, but so is the circuitousness of our nation's politics. There were so many times that I had the thought of, "oh my god, and we are STILL fighting this fight." During this current phase of political shitshowdom it was oddly comforting and reassuring. Aside from this political deja vu, the things that stuck with me most were...
1. The idea that anyone could read this and feel like it would make a great musical (I mean, duh, it obviously does...but it just points to the genius of Lin Manuel Miranda that he read this and "saw it"),
2. How the f$@7 has Thomas Jefferson somehow become this mythologized figure in our country's history when he was actually such a clueless short-sighted idiot (not to mention racist, but that I already knew)? I realize everyone has their flaws...but no. I just don't get it.
1. The idea that anyone could read this and feel like it would make a great musical (I mean, duh, it obviously does...but it just points to the genius of Lin Manuel Miranda that he read this and "saw it"),
2. How the f$@7 has Thomas Jefferson somehow become this mythologized figure in our country's history when he was actually such a clueless short-sighted idiot (not to mention racist, but that I already knew)? I realize everyone has their flaws...but no. I just don't get it.
hallamahamster's review against another edition
4.0
The audiobook's narrator was wonderful. I enjoyed his voice and the story of Alexander Hamilton so much that I finished the audiobook in a week's time.
I'm a casual fan of the musical Hamilton, in that I love the music and the actors but I don't know enough about musicals in general to classify why I like it more than "I love the lyrics and the voices." I also want to believe the musical is fairly accurate to history. Knowing the musical would demand poetic license, I wanted to know more about Hamilton and this seemed to be The Book.
Great story! Well researched. I did get a little lost in the banking details ("I’ll give him this: his financial system is a work of genius. I couldn’t undo it if I tried. And I tried."), that's my own failing, not the book's. I did find the lack of Coast Guard mention interesting--if a book were to list of Hamilton's accomplishments, why skip it? Though the book was already 800 pages, so I understand some decisive editing.
I had hoped for a bit more insight into his family, namely the Schuyler siblings (there were 14! 8 lived to adulthood!) and his children (8! Including his youngest, who was also named Philip because the elder Philip Hamilton died in a duel). All the details about his parents, including Rachel's "first" husband, lead me to believe the children's names, birth years, and deaths would at least be listed.
I'm a casual fan of the musical Hamilton, in that I love the music and the actors but I don't know enough about musicals in general to classify why I like it more than "I love the lyrics and the voices." I also want to believe the musical is fairly accurate to history. Knowing the musical would demand poetic license, I wanted to know more about Hamilton and this seemed to be The Book.
Great story! Well researched. I did get a little lost in the banking details ("I’ll give him this: his financial system is a work of genius. I couldn’t undo it if I tried. And I tried."), that's my own failing, not the book's. I did find the lack of Coast Guard mention interesting--if a book were to list of Hamilton's accomplishments, why skip it? Though the book was already 800 pages, so I understand some decisive editing.
I had hoped for a bit more insight into his family, namely the Schuyler siblings (there were 14! 8 lived to adulthood!) and his children (8! Including his youngest, who was also named Philip because the elder Philip Hamilton died in a duel). All the details about his parents, including Rachel's "first" husband, lead me to believe the children's names, birth years, and deaths would at least be listed.
isalim's review against another edition
3.0
I rushed to finish this because the movie was coming out and I HAD TO FINISH IT BEFORE THE MOVIE. Best American propaganda I've ever read. Also I'm sobbing. There are tons of bits where it goes "A. Ham did a bad thing" and then "but it wasn't thaaatttt bad because of X and Y" and then "okay I lied he's stupid sometimes idk why he did this" I am terrible at book reviews okay done.
katyakasha's review against another edition
5.0
Finally finished this behemoth. It was a fascinating read and not only to see the inspiration for the musical.
circe813's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
slow-paced
3.0
It feels unreasonable to provide spoiler alerts & content warnings gor historical events.
georgiaobrien's review against another edition
5.0
The slowest I've ever read a book, but feels so good to have finally conquered it! Such a beautiful, detailed historical biography. Gripping even to the tiniest details.