Scan barcode
A review by gadicohen93
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
4.0
This book was so much fun – in the way it uprooted quai-religious figures out of the history books and mutilated their Mt. Rushmore reputations, so that, in the end, I’ve come away believing that the Greatest Generation may not have been so great individually, but together were able to consolidate a great nation.
It feels like I started this book a lifetime ago. Chernow transported me to the jam-packed life of Alexander more than anybody else (though JJ Ellis, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and my APUSH teacher all come in close seconds.) The sweltering Caribbean hellhole of his deplorable upbringing; the forests and fields of his guerilla days as Washington’s aide-de-camp; the heady days he spent as finance secretary … this full portrait of Hamilton & environs was riveting. The writing ticked forward, expertly sewing together excerpts from letters and articles and stories passed down through the ages, as well as historical details and character sketches that came at just the right places.
I was astonished at how deeply Jefferson reviled Hamilton and at the efforts he took to tarnish Hamilton’s public character, so much so that I feel like Chernow may have painted old Thomas with a little too much chiaroscuro. (Most historians I've read do this, too, depicting TJ as a sly, hypocritical, fervent politician). Though to Chernow’s credit, no character escaped the heavy shading of his brush. Even Hamilton himself (whom Chernow lionizes), in the last half-decade of his life, went bonkers with bombastic, petty revenge fantasies and militaristic dreams of conquering empires a la France and Spain – not to mention his foolish “affair(s) of honor.”
GW came off as an unschooled bore with anger management problems, chaperoned by Hamilton throughout his entire presidency; Madison was a mousy introvert who turned his back on Hamilton as well as on the principles of the Constitution the moment his fellow Virginian TJ landed from France; Adams was a sensitive, petulant, ungrateful homebody; Monroe might’ve been actually evil.
It is my favorite thing about this era in history: the raucous divisions that emerged out of the cohesion of the Revolution, fueled by petty personal hatreds but also deeply representative of the fissures in American society itself. Greater-than-life characters are torn down but built up again, zits and all. But Hamilton might've been the most underrated one. Hamilton – the most partisan figure of all the Framers, a "bastard" and foreign "orphan" – was able to do so much, setting in place a financial system that's lasted through the ages, as well as deftly navigating the executive branch for Washington. He was a really inspiring man and Chernow does justice to his name.
It feels like I started this book a lifetime ago. Chernow transported me to the jam-packed life of Alexander more than anybody else (though JJ Ellis, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and my APUSH teacher all come in close seconds.) The sweltering Caribbean hellhole of his deplorable upbringing; the forests and fields of his guerilla days as Washington’s aide-de-camp; the heady days he spent as finance secretary … this full portrait of Hamilton & environs was riveting. The writing ticked forward, expertly sewing together excerpts from letters and articles and stories passed down through the ages, as well as historical details and character sketches that came at just the right places.
I was astonished at how deeply Jefferson reviled Hamilton and at the efforts he took to tarnish Hamilton’s public character, so much so that I feel like Chernow may have painted old Thomas with a little too much chiaroscuro. (Most historians I've read do this, too, depicting TJ as a sly, hypocritical, fervent politician). Though to Chernow’s credit, no character escaped the heavy shading of his brush. Even Hamilton himself (whom Chernow lionizes), in the last half-decade of his life, went bonkers with bombastic, petty revenge fantasies and militaristic dreams of conquering empires a la France and Spain – not to mention his foolish “affair(s) of honor.”
GW came off as an unschooled bore with anger management problems, chaperoned by Hamilton throughout his entire presidency; Madison was a mousy introvert who turned his back on Hamilton as well as on the principles of the Constitution the moment his fellow Virginian TJ landed from France; Adams was a sensitive, petulant, ungrateful homebody; Monroe might’ve been actually evil.
It is my favorite thing about this era in history: the raucous divisions that emerged out of the cohesion of the Revolution, fueled by petty personal hatreds but also deeply representative of the fissures in American society itself. Greater-than-life characters are torn down but built up again, zits and all. But Hamilton might've been the most underrated one. Hamilton – the most partisan figure of all the Framers, a "bastard" and foreign "orphan" – was able to do so much, setting in place a financial system that's lasted through the ages, as well as deftly navigating the executive branch for Washington. He was a really inspiring man and Chernow does justice to his name.