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mattgoldberg 's review for:
Alexander Hamilton
by Ron Chernow
What a remarkable tome. Obviously, Lin-Manuel Miranda's adaptation looms large, and it's fascinating to see where Miranda departed from history to streamline or emphasize the dramatic impact of his musical. But it also does provide a nice shorthand for Chernow's book, and I ended up seeing the faces of Miranda and his co-stars when I read about these people rather than their real-life depictions.
'Alexander Hamilton' is absolutely a dense book, but not dense in the senes that it's difficult to read. It's dense in that there's a lot of information and even though Hamilton's life was relatively short compared to his fellow Founding Fathers, there was clearly much to explore, and I like that Chernow is willing to show bafflement and sometimes disgust with his subject rather than simply trying to launder Hamilton's life into a hagiography. It's a fair-handed, emotional book that makes us consider our place as Americans, what we owe to this country, what we owe to each other, and where we fall short in our own ideals. I'm incredibly grateful to have read it.
'Alexander Hamilton' is absolutely a dense book, but not dense in the senes that it's difficult to read. It's dense in that there's a lot of information and even though Hamilton's life was relatively short compared to his fellow Founding Fathers, there was clearly much to explore, and I like that Chernow is willing to show bafflement and sometimes disgust with his subject rather than simply trying to launder Hamilton's life into a hagiography. It's a fair-handed, emotional book that makes us consider our place as Americans, what we owe to this country, what we owe to each other, and where we fall short in our own ideals. I'm incredibly grateful to have read it.