Alexander Hamilton

Good read Awesome book Good quality print and paper

Help me to better understand the history of American early times.

Wenn ich mein Jahr mit einem Wort beschreiben sollte, wäre es wohl "Hamilton". Die historische Figur kannte ich zwar, jedoch nur sehr vage - bis mir von einem Freund permanent das Musical von Lin Manuel Miranda empfohlen wurde. Irgendwann konnte ich mich nicht mehr wehren und hörte mir die Stücke an, was mein musikalisches Leben stark veränderte. Mittlerweile kann ich jedes Lied auswendig, doch das reichte mir nicht. Ich wollte mehr über Alexander Hamilton und sein Leben erfahren, denn nur ein Musical kann es natürlich nicht genau wiedergeben. Deshalb bin ich bei der offensichtlichsten Wahl angelangt, "Alexander Hamilton" von Ron Chernow. Das Buch ist aktuell nur in englischer Sprache verfügbar, was für mich zwar kein Problem ist. Andere sollten sich jedoch bewusst sein, dass aufgrund der historischen Aufarbeitung der Person gute Kenntnisse benötigt werden. Dann aber wird man hier genau das finden, was man möchte. Vom Start, einer kleinen Einführung durch das Leben der älteren Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, über das gesamte Leben eines bemerkenswerten Mannes. Ron Chernow schafft es dabei die Details so darzulegen, dass man unbedingt weiterlesen muss und sich gar keine Pausen gönnen will. Das wird zwar aufgrund der Länge schwer, dennoch verschlang ich das Buch. Hier erhält man dann auch eine genauere Aufarbeitung einiger Themen, die im Musical verschönt wurden. Gerade seine Aktivitäten im Krieg werden hier derart ausführlich aufgearbeitet, dass man noch mehr Respekt vor dem Mann erhält. Auch seine Beziehung mit anderen historischen Figuren, allen voran Aaron Burr, ist stets interessant und interessant dargestellt. Dabei stört es gar nicht, dass Chernow gerne abschweift und vom Thema abkommt, denn das tut er genau an den Stellen, an denen man als Leser mehr von den Umgebenheiten hören möchte. Der Schreibstil unterstützt das, denn trotz vieler Details ist das Thema nie zu trocken. Tatsächlich entwichen mir sogar mehrfach die Tränen, und das ganz ohne lyrische und musikalische Unterstützung von Lin Manuel Miranda. "Alexander Hamilton" von Ron Chernow ist ein Buch, das jeder lesen sollte, der sich für amerikanische Geschichte interessiert. Alexander Hamilton war wirklich eine besondere Person, sowohl in seinen Sternstunden als auch in den Momenten, in denen er gravierende Fehler beging und selbst zur Schattenfigur wurde. Eine perfektere Aufarbeitung seines Lebens gibt es nicht, weshalb ich gerne fünf Sterne vergebe und das Buch definitiv an jeden weiterempfehle, der die Ohrwürmer des Musicals nicht mehr herausbekommt.

Hamilton (AH) was born in Nevis, a British West Indian island near St. Kitts; his year of birth is somewhat debatable but it was most likely 1755. His mother died when he was 14, and his father had deserted the family years earlier; he and his older brother (by two years) were left without family, friends, and money. For the next few years he was raised by neighbors, and did bookkeeping for a shipping company. At the age of 18 or so, Hamilton sailed to America, stopping first in Boston but settling soon after in New York. AH had little if any formal education during his Nevis years, but he likely was tutored by the elderly ladies in the community; he became bilingual learning French from his mother and he read and re-read the small collection of English classics his mother had accumulated. He gained admission to Kings College (later renamed Columbia University) but dropped out to fight in the Revolutionary War. Hamilton came to General George Washington's attention early on in New York and was chosen to join Washington's staff. Now in his early 20's, he was drafting the bulk of Washington's correspondence from reports for Congress to orders from Washington to his Generals. Washington quickly gave AH more and more responsibility. And the rest is history.....finally gaining a command and playing a key role in Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown effectively ending the Revolutionary War, penning the Federalist papers with Madison, contributing to the framing of the Constitution, serving as Washington's Treasury Secretary, becoming a successful New York lawyer, and together with wife Eliza raising eight children. Hamilton had many successes in his brief life, and author Ron Chernow does not restrain himself in his accolades. "If Washington was the father of the country.....then Alexander Hamilton was the father of American government." Hamilton's many accomplishments included establishing the Federal Bank, funding public debt, creating the tax system, the Customs Service, the Coast Guard. Also AH "....laid the groundwork for both liberal democracy and capitalism and helped transform the role of the president from passive administrator to active policy maker......and helped to weld the states irreversibly into one nation." Yet Chernow is not reticent to include AH's shortcomings. He shows that at times AH could be hypocritical and had a chronic tendency to magnify problems. He sometimes tried to do too much at the same time, launching too many initiatives at once. Toward the end, AH and Adams detested each other: "Both were hasty, erratic, impulsive men and capable of atrocious judgment." Chernow includes, with perhaps too much detail, AH's shameful, embarrassing and long-lasting affair with Mrs. Mariah Reynolds. There is an additional story told in this marvelous book - the critical events in the founding of the United States, particularly the creation of our Constitution and the major issues facing our first president. To lay the groundwork for the ratification of the Constitution, Hamilton conceived the idea of "The Federalist Papers"(FP) , drawing together the contributors, writing most of the eighty-three essays and seeing to their publication; AH wrote twenty-one of them in a mere two months . "Hamilton's mind always worked with preternatural speed. His collected papers are so stupefying in length that it is hard to believe that one man created them in fewer than five decades." Chernow does an excellent job of summarizing the FP's groupings. It is amazing for the reader to see how many issues of those days still resonate today and illiustrate how passionately citizens of the 1790's felt about matters such as Federal v. State responsibilities. It is also very interesting to read the history and debate concerning so many precedent setting events. Fortunately, Chernow goes far beyond the typical biographer's practice of paying the most minimal attention to those events in which his subject played a minor role. And so we are treated to many pages devoted to all the major events of the times. These include how we elected our first President (no campaigning!), why many of our early presidents were from Virginia, how the Constitution was agreed to by a disparate group of 39, how its ratification process played out, how political parties came to be, the XYZ affair, passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts, creating the USA's first currency and coinage. Even how the stock exchange was created. ! While AH had many incredible successes, great satisfaction, and happy moments, there are many moments of gloom and foreboding throughout the book. From the earliest of its 731 pages, "Alexander Hamilton" details how closely Aaron Burr's life was interwoven with Hamilton's. Burr pops up continuously, with details of his career advancement, family life, personal habits, and characteristics. The subject of dueling also arises frequently. Dueling was an unfortunate part of many gentlemen's lives and Hamilton had several occasions where he was involved as a third party with the duels of others. Two of the last chapters, about 30 pages, deal with the Hamilton-Burr duel in Weehauken, NJ. Sadly, less than three years before his own death in that duel, Hamilton's oldest son Philip was killed at the very same site. He was only 20, defending his father's honor, attacked in a July 4th speech. This is an excellent bio, one of the two or three best I have ever read. (I found it far superior to Chernow's book on Washington). I recommend it highly. This is my 500th review !

Muy buen libro , te mantiene leyendo con cada página que avanzas , es algo adictivo. El formato Kindle es perfecto para este libro pues tienes la opción de ver la explicación de ciertas palabras que pueden ser complicadas y tienes la opción de diccionario si quieres saber el significado. Excelente experiencia.

Alexander Hamilton’s story has been made famous by the popular musical that bears the same name. The musical has successfully roused my interest in his biography on which it is based because I want to fill the gaps in between scenes and have a deeper grasp of the relationships and antagonism between characters. I also find Hamilton an intriguing, controversial and complex character worth exploring, something that a musical does not permit. First let’s appreciate the skills of the biographer. His subject was a great man with eloquence and many talents. His breath of knowledge and knowhow few could match, covering first and foremost law, then finance and economics, military administration and tactics, and science of government. He was “a thinker and doer”, “unashamedly brainy to appeal to the masses” (p.627). He was a visionary, well ahead of his time, and a fierce pioneer, who was effective in meticulously forging a way to turn his vision into reality. He laid down the constitutional framework and built the federal financial system – institutional infrastructure needed for the flourishing of this modern market economy when America was still a largely rural economy. He was a powerful steam engine spearheading towards a future that only few could see. When he was so far ahead of time, he found himself a lone voice in the wilderness. He was given the opportunity and he did not squander it but made something out it – he could because he was full of ideas. Proposals after proposals, he never lost sight of his vision. He tried to explain but out of self-interest or out of their wildest imagination, he invited critics and suspicions all his life. He put his head down as the doer, but calumnies plagued his whole career. For a man of honour, he fought many battles to clear his reputation. Sadly he “was villainized in American history textbooks as an apologist of privilege and wealth” (p. 629) which was quite the opposite to who he was – a self-made man, a fervent abolitionist and a staunch believer in meritocracy. Hamilton was a prolific writer; he incessantly published papers, official reports, pamphlets, essays, newspaper articles. In addition, there were private papers and letters. Because his life intertwined with so many prominent figures of the time, one can imagine the colossal volume of materials to sieve through and sort for the biography, which demonstrates the biographer’s excellent organisational skills. The end product flows smoothly as if without effort. Secondly, I am most impressed by the versatility of the biographer’s writing skill. A biographer is naturally a narrator. However, Hamilton is a challenging subject as the biographer is required to make lucid many varied technical details of his pioneer thinking in historical critical moments that shaped the world, such as the development and debate on the Constitution, Hamilton’s federal fiscal and financial system and its opposition, the development of political thoughts for a new country, in particular the inner conflict of Hamilton if a republican government could deliver a proper balance of liberty and order. I believe the biographer has done a marverllous job in introducing us to the controversies that Hamilton was embroiled in. But my biggest enjoyment of this biography is probably not the intent of the biographer! It reads to me the redemptive story of Hamilton – his testimony of God! To me who shares his faith, it is an exhilarating read to see the providence of God working marvellously in his life. His life, plainly and faithfully told by the biographer, speaks for itself. Things that the biographer finds puzzling, like Hamilton’s injudicious behaviour in the whole Reynolds Affair at the height of his power and fame, his vision for the army during the Quasi-War with France in 1798-1800, the “execrable” idea of the Christian Constitutional Society, and his preoccupation with religion in his final years, make sense if one understands the challenges of Christian walk. For example, I see striking parallels in David sinning with Bathsheba and Hamilton sinning with Reynolds – the injudicious behaviour, the coverup and the subsequent compulsion to confess when exposed. His many inner struggles also makes perfect sense in the light of the Bible. I find his dying scene particularly moving for its gospel light. When Eliza was called to his deathbed following the duel with Burr, Hamilton’s words of comfort to her were, “Remember, my Eliza, you are a Christian.” Do we feel the weightiness of that name? He was entreating her to live like one worthy of that call. However powerful, influential and capable he was on earth, at his deathbed, he could promise nothing except to point Eliza to their Almighty God who is greater than he, loves her more perfectly and in whom their hope is found. He died a repentant sinner, having “a tender reliance on the mercy of the Almighty, through the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He repeated to the Bishop present that “he was dying in a peaceful state, and that he was reconciled to his God and his fate.” On our measures, it was a tragic end to a great man’s life, but God single-handedly turned it into a good ending of eternal hope that we all share. Burr, on the other hand, was a contrast to Hamilton. Both were orphaned from a young age. Who was more likely to be a principled and religious man with integrity from family background? I imagine it would have been Burr because he was the grandson of Jonathan Edwards, the renowned American theologian of all time, while Hamilton was illegitimate. But then Burr was “a dissipated, libidinous character” and “had been openly accused of every conceivable sin: deflowering virgins, breaking up marriages through adultery, forcing women into prostitution, accepting bribes, fornicating with slaves, looting the estates of legal clients. The grandson of theologian Jonathan Edwards had sampled many forbidden fruits (p. 682).” He lived to 77 while Hamilton died in his hand at the age of 49 in the infamous duel. What memory did he leave? “The death mask of Aaron Burr is haunting and unforgettable, with the nose twisted to the left, the mouth crooked, and the expression grotesque, as if all the suppressed pain of his life were engraved in his face by the end. John Quincy Adams left this epitaph of the man: “Burr’s life take it all together, was such as in any country of sound morals his friends would be desirous of burying in profound oblivion.” (p.722)” What biblical doctrine does it shine out for us? Election of God’s people – i.e. they are chosen by God and not the other way round. How does the biographer achieve telling all these without it being intentional? He seeks to tell the story faithfully and authentically and comprehensively, and the story will speak for itself.