Alexander Hamilton


In the first full-length biography of Alexander Hamilton in decades, National Book Award winner 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.

Chernow's biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the story of America's birth seen through its most central figure. At a critical time to look back to our roots, Alexander Hamilton will remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans.

Winner of the 2005 George Washington Book Prize

Author(s): Ron Chernow  

ISBN 10: 1594200092
ISBN 13: 9781594200090
Pages: 832
Format: Hardcover
Publication: April 2004
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Other books by Ron Chernow

1. Alexander Hamilton Paperback (April 2005)
2. Alexander Hamilton MP3 Book (November 2007)
3. Alexander Hamilton (2004/04/01)
4. Death Of A Banker Paperback (1997/03/25)
5. Grant
6. House of Morgan: An American Banking Family and the Rise of Modern Finance Hardcover (1990/02/01)
7. The Death of the Banker: The Decline and Fall of the Great Financial Dynasties and the Triumph of the Small Investor Paperback (July 1997)
8. The House of Morgan (2003/06/12)
9. The House of Morgan Hardcover (1990)
10. The House of Morgan Audio MP3 CD - Unabridged (October 2013)
11. The House of Morgan Audio Compact Disc - Unabridged (October 2013)
12. The House of Morgan Audio Compact Disc - Unabridged (October 2013)
13. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance Paperback (January 2010)
14. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance Paperback (September 2001)
15. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance Audio, 1991 (January 1991)
16. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Family and the Rise of Modern Finance Paperback (1991/04/01)
17. The Warburgs: A Family Saga (1993/11/04)
18. The Warburgs: A Family Saga (February 1995)
19. The Warburgs: The Twentieth Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family (1993/10/01)
20. Titan Audio MP3 CD (August 2013)

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