Alexander Hamilton
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Building on biographies by Richard Brookhiser and Willard Sterne Randall, Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton provides what may be the most comprehensive modern examination of the often overlooked Founding Father. From the start, Chernow argues that Hamilton’s premature death at age 49 left his record to be reinterpreted and even re-written by his more long-lived enemies, among them: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Monroe. Hamilton’s achievements as first Secretary of the Treasury, co-author of The Federalist Papers, and member of the Constitutional Convention were clouded after his death by strident claims that he was an arrogant, self-serving monarchist. Chernow delves into the almost 22,000 pages of letters, manuscripts, and articles that make up Hamilton’s legacy to reveal a man with a sophisticated intellect, a romantic spirit, and a late-blooming religiosity.
"Today, we are indisputably the heirs to Hamilton's America, and to repudiate his legacy is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world." Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, p. 6 (ending the Introduction).
This book was given to me by a former boss and warm friend out in New Mexico with whom I love to debate the Constitution and politics. When he first heard an idea of mine for amending the Constitution he challenged me thusly: "Do you think you're more enlightened than Madison?" I don't (necessarily) but Alexander Hamilton, the historic rival of Madison and his partner/patron Thomas Jefferson, certainly thought so about himself.
Hamilton was one of the few delegates at the Constitutional Convention who would have recognized (and approved of) the modern imperial presidency. (He in fact argued for a President and Senators who would serve for life.) His real problem with the Constitution was that it failed to make the central government strong enough, a deficiency that later Presidents (especially Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson, the most radical Hamiltonians) corrected in spades. (Lincoln, in case you're wondering, was a Hamiltonian too, though perhaps not as radical.) Yet, he remained loyal to the system of government he helped to create (and through "The Federalist Papers" did even more to promote) for all the 17 years between the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and his untimely death in New York, where he was rowed after his duel with the today otherwise largely forgotten Aaron Burr.
227 pages (about the length of Forrest McDonald's biography of Hamilton, the only other one I have read) of this 731-page book are devoted to Hamilton's life prior to the Constitutional Convention, a span of 32 years. During this time Hamilton was born on Nevis, a British colony in the Caribbean; escaped from his agonizing orphanhood there with a scholarship to King's College in New York (rechristened Columbia after the Revolution); put schoolbooks aside to fight in the Revolution from 1775 until the end, including several years as George Washington's aide-de-camp; married the beautiful, respectably wealthy Elizabeth Schuyler and started a family; and served in the Confederation Congress and as a lawyer in New York. All this would have satisfied most veterans of the Revolutionary War, but not Hamilton; nor was Washington, Hamilton's warmest friend and patron, satisfied to embark on his service as President without Hamilton's advice. He became the first Secretary of the Treasury and the man who made the new nation financially viable.
The arrangements Hamilton made to do that earned him the enmity of Jefferson, who had become Secretary of State, and Madison, who became what amounts to the first House Minority Leader as the first American political parties coalesced around support for or opposition to Hamilton's ideas. The increasing repression in France by its revolutionary leadership, and the war fought to contain or reverse the French Revolution by the rest of Western Europe, lent an emotional dimension to the party rivalry which caused American political leaders (Hamilton not excepted) to become increasingly unhinged, expecting (and sometimes receiving) violence from their opponents. Of course, it would do a great injustice to dismiss the politics of the 1790's with "they were all crazy," but Chernow's approach to the period comes close to stating that Hamilton was sane and his opponents were crazy and/or evil, which is only slightly less of an injustice, and for which I deduct one star from the book.
In this respect, the most problematic part of the book are the nine chapters devoted to the John Adams administration, which lasted four years but must have seemed much longer to those who lived through it. Due to the danger of war with France after negotiations for a principled neutrality broke down, Washington and Hamilton were called out of retirement to take up major generalships in the new national army (which numbered about ten thousand out of a population of four or five million). Washington's health would not permit him to serve an active role (even prior to his death in December 1799), so Hamilton more or less ran the army, and was very disappointed when Adams concluded peace with France and concluded the US no longer needed much of an army. Hamilton saw this as somewhere between "not in the national interest" and "treason" and began pushing his, Washington's, and Adams' party, the Federalists, to back Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who unlike Adams had been at the Constitutional Convention, for President in 1800. By the time of the election Adams had fired his whole cabinet, who were Hamilton's men anyway, and Hamilton had written a long pamphlet calling him, essentially, crazy. This is problematic in that I strongly believe Adams made the right call. Twenty-nine years (the period of time between the end of the Revolution and the War of 1812) is the third-longest period the US has ever gone without fighting a major war, for which Adams deserves substantial credit.
All that aside, there is a lot of good information here, and Chernow greatly humanizes his subject. Both Hamilton's flaws and his strengths are revealed and it's clear Hamilton's merits outweigh his flaws. Chernow has previously written about titans of the Gilded Age whose business conquests would have been impossible without the financial system devised by Hamilton. I may or may not read more books by him, but fully expect to read more books about Hamilton and his friends and enemies made during the Washington administration. This book itself is well worth the reading and, subject to the caveat above, I would recommend it to anyone with a passing interest in this period of American history. Four stars.
The case for learning more about A Hamilton
Chernow chronicles Founding Father Hamilton from birth to death, including a brief look at the Hamilton family after his death. This biography of one of our more controversial and less understood founders is excellent. While Chernow seems to be sympathetic to Hamilton as a misunderstood founder, Chernow neither denies nor glosses over Hamilton's mistakes and personal faults.
This biography makes an important contribution to our overall understanding of Hamilton and the other founding fathers, who argued over states' rights and federalism, capitalism, and the intended course of the revolution to name a few. These men (and their wives) were petty, vain, self-interested, and hypocritical, not unlike politicians today, but as we learn from Chernow, Hamilton and the other founders created a system of government, proving the test of time.
I have always believed Hamilton deserved more veneration as a founder and Chernow explains in detail why. Hamilton is much more than the man who dueled Burr and appears on the US $10. Hamilton was a Revolutionary War hero, advocate for the Constitution (Federalist Papers), and founder of our market economy and financial system. Hamilton was a leading supporter of a strong executive, implied powers, European neutrality, a standing army and navy, and abolition of slavery. In many ways, good or bad, we live in a country much closer to Hamilton's philosophy than Jefferson's or Madison's.
As excellent as Chernow's biography of Hamilton is, there are instances in which the author "channels" Hamilton and draws favorable conclusions impossible to make, such as Hamilton's warmth for Washington, love of Eliza, and feelings prior to the duel. Perhaps, all true, but we cannot know for certain. Contrarily, Chernow corrects assertions that Hamilton was an "out-of-control" amorous man and does not dwell ad nausea on Hamilton's one known extra martial affair.
Overall, this is an excellent biography that narrates an extraordinary life of an exceptional and flawed founder.
Biographer-in-Chief
Here is another riveting, fascinating, compulsively readable biography from the greatest practictioner of the art now in business. This man could write the history of paperclips and make it fun and exciting to read. While it helps to be retired or unemployed, or laid up in bed with a broken leg to find the time to read his biographies, it is time well spent. The narratives never flag or fail. I salute you, Ron Chernow, and nominate you for the Medal of Freedom for your contribution to American letters.
Amazing Biography. Bravo!
This book is tremendous. Before you even pick up the book, you know that the man is going to die in a duel, so reading a book where you know the violent ending could be interesting. Chernow brings you into the life of Hamilton to realize the true genius of this foreign-born, founding father. Many biographers paint Hamilton in an evil light. Chernow doesn't write about an angel. He writes about a human genius with faults like all of us. A man who, one may say, created the backbone of our government. Reading this book is like reading a longer definition of the American dream. While not born on our soil, Mr. Hamilton did more than most of us could even dream of doing. Chernow is incredible in writing a biography that satisfies any curiosity one could have on Alexander Hamilton. He touches on the historical (past, present and future)and personal aspects. This is hands down one of the best biographies ever written.
Washington's Co-President
Alexander Hamilton was one of the brilliant men whom we acclaim as a founding father of the USA. Solider and staff officer in the Revolutionary War, co-writer of the Federalist Papers, the first Secretary of the Treasury, and leader of the Federalist Party. But, like all of the founding fathers, Hamilton was a complicated, flawed human being whose national accomplishments were mixed with personal folly and occasional bad judgment.
Ron Chernow's magnificent biography, simply titled "Alexander Hamilton", manages to capture the subject in all of his intellectual brilliance and illustrates his invaluable contribution to this great nation. Chernow shows his childhood in the Caribbean and the circumstances that led to his migration to New York to attend King's College. We see his brave and reckless turn during the revolution that first brought him to Washington's attention. The portrait of Hamilton as agitator for the constitution and leader of the Federalist Party is wonderfully detailed. Chernow examines Hamilton's attitudes on race, and clearly shows that Hamilton was a man ahead of his time, not only deploring slavery, but actually believing that the races were equal under God. Hamilton's sex scandal, which rocked his life and threatened his political career is also given its due, once again pointing out that giant that Hamilton was he was also all-too human. His rivalry with Jefferson and his close relationship with Washington are also deeply explored, as is his bitter disappointment when President John Adams refused to go to war with France during his term and thus allow Hamilton the military command he so desperately wanted.
Chernow clearly laments Hamilton's early death, the result of a politically-motivated duel with Aaron Burr, and offers clues as to what might have been. When the time is considered that it took Hamilton to author his portion of the Federalist Papers, and with the knowledge that he planned even more political tracts before he was killed, one shares Chernow's frustration that the world was robbed too early of one of its great political geniuses.
Written in a clipping, easy to read style, Ron Chernow's biography will inform the reader of this great American and offers a good deal of history of the earliest days of the republic.
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Price: $12.24
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Description
Ron Chernow, the renowned author of Titan whom the New York Times has called "as elegant an architect of monumental histories as we’ve seen in decades," vividly re-creates the whole sweep of Alexander Hamilton’s turbulent life—his exotic, brutal upbringing; his titanic feuds with celebrated rivals; his pivotal role in defining the shape of the federal government and the American economy; his shocking illicit romances; his enlightened abolitionism; and his famous death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July 1804. Drawing upon extensive, unparalleled research— including nearly fifty previously undiscovered essays highlighting Hamilton’s fiery journalism as well as his revealing missives to colleagues and friends—this biography of the extraordinarily gifted founding father who galvanized, inspired, and scandalized the newborn nation is the work by which all others will be measured.Building on biographies by Richard Brookhiser and Willard Sterne Randall, Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton provides what may be the most comprehensive modern examination of the often overlooked Founding Father. From the start, Chernow argues that Hamilton’s premature death at age 49 left his record to be reinterpreted and even re-written by his more long-lived enemies, among them: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and James Monroe. Hamilton’s achievements as first Secretary of the Treasury, co-author of The Federalist Papers, and member of the Constitutional Convention were clouded after his death by strident claims that he was an arrogant, self-serving monarchist. Chernow delves into the almost 22,000 pages of letters, manuscripts, and articles that make up Hamilton’s legacy to reveal a man with a sophisticated intellect, a romantic spirit, and a late-blooming religiosity.
One fault of the book, is that Chernow is so convinced of Hamilton’s excellence that his narrative sometimes becomes hagiographic. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Chernow’s account of the infamous duel between Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804. He describes Hamilton’s final hours as pious, while Burr, Jefferson, and Adams achieve an almost cartoonish villainy at the news of Hamilton’s passing.
A defender of the union against New England secession and an opponent of slavery, Hamilton has a special appeal to modern sensibilities. Chernow argues that in contrast to Jefferson and Washington’s now outmoded agrarian idealism, Hamilton was "the prophet of the capitalist revolution" and the true forebear of modern America. In his Prologue, he writes: "In all probability, Alexander Hamilton is the foremost figure in American history who never attained the presidency, yet he probably had a much deeper and more lasting impact than many who did." With Alexander Hamilton, this impact can now be more widely appreciated. --Patrick O'Kelley
Customer Reviews
The most controversial Founder"Today, we are indisputably the heirs to Hamilton's America, and to repudiate his legacy is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world." Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, p. 6 (ending the Introduction).
This book was given to me by a former boss and warm friend out in New Mexico with whom I love to debate the Constitution and politics. When he first heard an idea of mine for amending the Constitution he challenged me thusly: "Do you think you're more enlightened than Madison?" I don't (necessarily) but Alexander Hamilton, the historic rival of Madison and his partner/patron Thomas Jefferson, certainly thought so about himself.
Hamilton was one of the few delegates at the Constitutional Convention who would have recognized (and approved of) the modern imperial presidency. (He in fact argued for a President and Senators who would serve for life.) His real problem with the Constitution was that it failed to make the central government strong enough, a deficiency that later Presidents (especially Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon Johnson, the most radical Hamiltonians) corrected in spades. (Lincoln, in case you're wondering, was a Hamiltonian too, though perhaps not as radical.) Yet, he remained loyal to the system of government he helped to create (and through "The Federalist Papers" did even more to promote) for all the 17 years between the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia and his untimely death in New York, where he was rowed after his duel with the today otherwise largely forgotten Aaron Burr.
227 pages (about the length of Forrest McDonald's biography of Hamilton, the only other one I have read) of this 731-page book are devoted to Hamilton's life prior to the Constitutional Convention, a span of 32 years. During this time Hamilton was born on Nevis, a British colony in the Caribbean; escaped from his agonizing orphanhood there with a scholarship to King's College in New York (rechristened Columbia after the Revolution); put schoolbooks aside to fight in the Revolution from 1775 until the end, including several years as George Washington's aide-de-camp; married the beautiful, respectably wealthy Elizabeth Schuyler and started a family; and served in the Confederation Congress and as a lawyer in New York. All this would have satisfied most veterans of the Revolutionary War, but not Hamilton; nor was Washington, Hamilton's warmest friend and patron, satisfied to embark on his service as President without Hamilton's advice. He became the first Secretary of the Treasury and the man who made the new nation financially viable.
The arrangements Hamilton made to do that earned him the enmity of Jefferson, who had become Secretary of State, and Madison, who became what amounts to the first House Minority Leader as the first American political parties coalesced around support for or opposition to Hamilton's ideas. The increasing repression in France by its revolutionary leadership, and the war fought to contain or reverse the French Revolution by the rest of Western Europe, lent an emotional dimension to the party rivalry which caused American political leaders (Hamilton not excepted) to become increasingly unhinged, expecting (and sometimes receiving) violence from their opponents. Of course, it would do a great injustice to dismiss the politics of the 1790's with "they were all crazy," but Chernow's approach to the period comes close to stating that Hamilton was sane and his opponents were crazy and/or evil, which is only slightly less of an injustice, and for which I deduct one star from the book.
In this respect, the most problematic part of the book are the nine chapters devoted to the John Adams administration, which lasted four years but must have seemed much longer to those who lived through it. Due to the danger of war with France after negotiations for a principled neutrality broke down, Washington and Hamilton were called out of retirement to take up major generalships in the new national army (which numbered about ten thousand out of a population of four or five million). Washington's health would not permit him to serve an active role (even prior to his death in December 1799), so Hamilton more or less ran the army, and was very disappointed when Adams concluded peace with France and concluded the US no longer needed much of an army. Hamilton saw this as somewhere between "not in the national interest" and "treason" and began pushing his, Washington's, and Adams' party, the Federalists, to back Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, who unlike Adams had been at the Constitutional Convention, for President in 1800. By the time of the election Adams had fired his whole cabinet, who were Hamilton's men anyway, and Hamilton had written a long pamphlet calling him, essentially, crazy. This is problematic in that I strongly believe Adams made the right call. Twenty-nine years (the period of time between the end of the Revolution and the War of 1812) is the third-longest period the US has ever gone without fighting a major war, for which Adams deserves substantial credit.
All that aside, there is a lot of good information here, and Chernow greatly humanizes his subject. Both Hamilton's flaws and his strengths are revealed and it's clear Hamilton's merits outweigh his flaws. Chernow has previously written about titans of the Gilded Age whose business conquests would have been impossible without the financial system devised by Hamilton. I may or may not read more books by him, but fully expect to read more books about Hamilton and his friends and enemies made during the Washington administration. This book itself is well worth the reading and, subject to the caveat above, I would recommend it to anyone with a passing interest in this period of American history. Four stars.
The case for learning more about A Hamilton
Chernow chronicles Founding Father Hamilton from birth to death, including a brief look at the Hamilton family after his death. This biography of one of our more controversial and less understood founders is excellent. While Chernow seems to be sympathetic to Hamilton as a misunderstood founder, Chernow neither denies nor glosses over Hamilton's mistakes and personal faults.
This biography makes an important contribution to our overall understanding of Hamilton and the other founding fathers, who argued over states' rights and federalism, capitalism, and the intended course of the revolution to name a few. These men (and their wives) were petty, vain, self-interested, and hypocritical, not unlike politicians today, but as we learn from Chernow, Hamilton and the other founders created a system of government, proving the test of time.
I have always believed Hamilton deserved more veneration as a founder and Chernow explains in detail why. Hamilton is much more than the man who dueled Burr and appears on the US $10. Hamilton was a Revolutionary War hero, advocate for the Constitution (Federalist Papers), and founder of our market economy and financial system. Hamilton was a leading supporter of a strong executive, implied powers, European neutrality, a standing army and navy, and abolition of slavery. In many ways, good or bad, we live in a country much closer to Hamilton's philosophy than Jefferson's or Madison's.
As excellent as Chernow's biography of Hamilton is, there are instances in which the author "channels" Hamilton and draws favorable conclusions impossible to make, such as Hamilton's warmth for Washington, love of Eliza, and feelings prior to the duel. Perhaps, all true, but we cannot know for certain. Contrarily, Chernow corrects assertions that Hamilton was an "out-of-control" amorous man and does not dwell ad nausea on Hamilton's one known extra martial affair.
Overall, this is an excellent biography that narrates an extraordinary life of an exceptional and flawed founder.
Biographer-in-Chief
Here is another riveting, fascinating, compulsively readable biography from the greatest practictioner of the art now in business. This man could write the history of paperclips and make it fun and exciting to read. While it helps to be retired or unemployed, or laid up in bed with a broken leg to find the time to read his biographies, it is time well spent. The narratives never flag or fail. I salute you, Ron Chernow, and nominate you for the Medal of Freedom for your contribution to American letters.
Amazing Biography. Bravo!
This book is tremendous. Before you even pick up the book, you know that the man is going to die in a duel, so reading a book where you know the violent ending could be interesting. Chernow brings you into the life of Hamilton to realize the true genius of this foreign-born, founding father. Many biographers paint Hamilton in an evil light. Chernow doesn't write about an angel. He writes about a human genius with faults like all of us. A man who, one may say, created the backbone of our government. Reading this book is like reading a longer definition of the American dream. While not born on our soil, Mr. Hamilton did more than most of us could even dream of doing. Chernow is incredible in writing a biography that satisfies any curiosity one could have on Alexander Hamilton. He touches on the historical (past, present and future)and personal aspects. This is hands down one of the best biographies ever written.
Washington's Co-President
Alexander Hamilton was one of the brilliant men whom we acclaim as a founding father of the USA. Solider and staff officer in the Revolutionary War, co-writer of the Federalist Papers, the first Secretary of the Treasury, and leader of the Federalist Party. But, like all of the founding fathers, Hamilton was a complicated, flawed human being whose national accomplishments were mixed with personal folly and occasional bad judgment.
Ron Chernow's magnificent biography, simply titled "Alexander Hamilton", manages to capture the subject in all of his intellectual brilliance and illustrates his invaluable contribution to this great nation. Chernow shows his childhood in the Caribbean and the circumstances that led to his migration to New York to attend King's College. We see his brave and reckless turn during the revolution that first brought him to Washington's attention. The portrait of Hamilton as agitator for the constitution and leader of the Federalist Party is wonderfully detailed. Chernow examines Hamilton's attitudes on race, and clearly shows that Hamilton was a man ahead of his time, not only deploring slavery, but actually believing that the races were equal under God. Hamilton's sex scandal, which rocked his life and threatened his political career is also given its due, once again pointing out that giant that Hamilton was he was also all-too human. His rivalry with Jefferson and his close relationship with Washington are also deeply explored, as is his bitter disappointment when President John Adams refused to go to war with France during his term and thus allow Hamilton the military command he so desperately wanted.
Chernow clearly laments Hamilton's early death, the result of a politically-motivated duel with Aaron Burr, and offers clues as to what might have been. When the time is considered that it took Hamilton to author his portion of the Federalist Papers, and with the knowledge that he planned even more political tracts before he was killed, one shares Chernow's frustration that the world was robbed too early of one of its great political geniuses.
Written in a clipping, easy to read style, Ron Chernow's biography will inform the reader of this great American and offers a good deal of history of the earliest days of the republic.
CTV.caThe Morning Skate: Bankruptcies, Turnovers, Conspiracies and Happy Chip Alexander of the Raleigh News & Observer reported, “Rutherford said no decision had been made on possible replacements if either or both players are not available. It's possible that center Jussi Jokinen could be moved to the wing on Rod Coyotes Investor Putting Together Group To Keep Team In Phoenix Bankruptcy overshadows playoffs The NHL should be basking in glory. Playoff series going to seven
Washington TimesTop 5: Sequels to 'Battle of the Smithsonian'Night at the Treasury Department — Understaffed and vexed by events, Timothy F. Geithner meets a reanimated Alexander Hamilton, who bears more bad news: "I knew Alexander Hamilton. I am Alexander Hamilton. You're no Alexander Hamilton!" 4.