A review by basepi
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

5.0

What a masterpiece. If history books in school were written with Chernow’s talent at bringing personality and humanity to non-fiction, I might have been a fan of history, instead of an unwilling participant.

I haven’t seen the musical. I knew embarrassingly little about Hamilton going into this book. It’s hard to describe just how affecting this book was to me. I found myself fuming at times, cheering at others. I think Chernow did a great job at showing the true character of Hamilton, faults and all. And that humanity that he portrays can’t help but make you cheer for him.

It is a very long book, especially for a slow reader like me. It took me more than 30 hours, and they were hours well-spent. It lagged in places, but that’s to be expected from an account so thorough.

Read it. 4.5 stars.