Book Review: Alexander Hamilton by Chernow

Title:Alexander Hamilton
Author:Ron Chernow
Published:: March 29, 2005
Read: August 3, 2016
Sold by:Amazon

I just finished reading this book on my Amazon Kindle and loved it. Before reading Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton, I had an eighth-grader's knowledge of the subject. I knew he was a "founding father", so to speak, that he was America's first Secretary of the Treasury, that he invented the dollar sign, and that he was killed in a duel with and by Aaron Burr. That's about it.

I first gained an interest in the subject matter after listening to the Original Broadway Soundtrack to Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda on my way from Dallas to Hot Springs, Arkansas for an Independence Day party at my mother-in-law's house. My wife had been listening to the soundtrack and was all a-buzz about it. For good reason as it turned out.

The soundtrack is thrilling. First of all, I enjoyed nearly every track on the two-CD set. Second, there are so many different musical styles on display that it's hard to believe it germinated from the mind of a single person. My favorites are the comic relief provided by Jonathan Groff singing the slightly deranged ditties as King George III. His accent is ear candy and his delivery conjures up the image of a powerful, petulant, but nonetheless crazy monarch. Who else could brightly sing "When push comes to shove, I will kill your friends and family to remind you. Of. My. Love?" I haven't seen the play yet, but I can picture the King "booping" the colonists gently on their noses as he reminds them Of. His. Love.

That led to me watching Miranda on Carpool Karaoke. (Thanks Apple for screwing that up. No wonder I hate you so very much!) James Cordon was hilarious and talented as always and Miranda was charming and engaging. When he said that he had been inspired by this epic tome that Chernow had written, my developing and deepening Hamilton obsession took a new turn and I downloaded the book to my Kindle. Good move on my part.

Of course, there are significant differences between Chernow's history and Miranda's script, but Miranda tracks the timeline quite well. I have a vocabulary that serves me well, yet I had to lean on my Amazon Kindle's ability to look up words. Chernow likes 18th and 19th century vocabulary and I am frankly out of practice in decoding 18th century calumnies (hell, I hadn't read the word "calumny" since 10th grade English class...glad I did!)

The picture of Alexander Hamilton that emerges in my mind is that of a psychologically damaged, perhaps manic-depressive, genius with an endless capacity for organizing ideas and working with details at every level. George Washington, who clearly adored Hamilton, kept Hamilton tethered enough for Hamilton to comport himself with socially normative behavior. What's tragic is that one gets the sense that once George Washington left the presidency, Hamilton started to run wild, and after President Washington died, Hamilton was not able to control himself. His manic writing, hair-trigger temper, and deep paranoia led to a self-destructive spiral that took him from the pinnacle of political power to the nadir of being shot in the gut and left to die by another politician who himself was suffering from the disappointment of waning influence and prospects.

Hamilton was convinced that either France would attack the United States or the northern states would secede from the union in order to get away from the moral cost and political bulwark imposed by slavery. He desperately wanted military glory and knew that if his honor were questionable, then when the great bell rang for someone to lead an army against the French or northern secessionists, it would NOT ring for him. Because he placed the public's perception of his honor above all else, Burr was able to goad him into a duel that lead to Hamilton's death, Burr's utter personal destruction, and Hamilton's widowed and cash-strapped wife being left with seven children to support.

I understand that Hamilton's death was a terrible development for his wife Eliza, yet it is easy to guess that had Hamilton lived into old age, he would have continued his downward spiral caused by gratuitously alienating people he needed, ignoring those who gave him sound advice, and destroying his reputation to the point that he would be a quasi-unknown today like James Monroe or John Quincy Adams.

Chernow's biography of Hamilton and the parallel story of youth of our nation lays out sufficient detail for everyone who reads it to learn something new yet he keeps the story moving. I am a slow reader and it took me about two weeks of evening and weekend reading to get through Chernow's work, but I enjoyed it enough that my next move was to download his George Washington and start on it. It's 20% longer than Hamilton, so it will be a while before you see another book review from me.