Alexander Hamilon by Ron Chernow
(Format used for this read: Audiobook—THANK GOODNESS…I NEVER would have made it thru otherwise!)
OMGeeeee I FINALLY finished this book y’all!
It took me six thousand friggin’ FOREVERS…
BUT I MADE IT THRU!!!
Here is the summary which sounds waaay more interesting than the book actually was in my opinion 🤣:
“In the first full-length biography of Alexander Hamilton in decades, Ron Chernow tells the riveting story of a man who overcame all odds to shape, inspire, and scandalize the newborn America. According to historian Joseph Ellis, Alexander Hamilton is “a robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all.”
Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow’s biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today’s America is the result of Hamilton’s countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time
. “To repudiate his legacy,” Chernow writes, “is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world.” Chernow here recounts Hamilton’s turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington’s aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton.
Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power. His is a Hamilton far more human than we’ve encountered before—from his shame about his birth to his fiery aspirations, from his intimate relationships with childhood friends to his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, and Burr, and from his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds to his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza. And never before has there been a more vivid account of Hamilton’s famous and mysterious death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July of 1804.”
I usually enjoy biographies and I like to learn in depth history…
but this book was reallllllly long and reallllllly detailed about things that I don’t wanna read details about (like our economic system 😬…I’m talking TEENSY TINY DETAILS about how it all works, yall)
I enjoyed 1/3 of this book…2/3 of it bored me TO DEATH.
But that 2/3 was BRUTAL.
It uses a BUNCH of fancy “scholarly speak” which totally went over my head and the guy reading the book reads sooooooo slow it was practically sloth-like (I even listened to it on the 2X speed).
I think a Cliff Notes version would have been a-okay for me!
I’m glad I didn’t give up because I HATE quitting books…and now I’m ready to see Hamilton next weekend 🤣….
My whole purpose in reading this book was because Lin-Manuel Miranda got the inspiration for the show while HE read this.
I HAD to read this before I see the show because I wanted to be fully immersed and fully informed.
Honestly……I HAVE NO IDEA HOW HE GOT AMAZING CREATIVE INSPIRATION FROM THIS.
He deserves EVERY single award he could possibly ever get… he’s a damn creative genius MASTERMIND.
But I will tell yall RIGHT NOW…
those almost 40 DAMN HOURS of this book are NOT going to be one of my favorite summer memories.
If you have read it and loved it…I congratulate you because you are WAY smarter than me! 🤣
Whew.
It’s done.
**For a MUCH more entertaining (although fictionalized) read about Alexander Hamilton’s life, check out this book I reviewed told thru his wife’s eyes: https://brainglitterwithdani.com/my-dear-hamilton/**