Alexander Hamilton - Ron Chernow
First published by Penguin Press: USA, 2004.
If you know the musical Hamilton you may also know that creator Lin-Manuel Miranda based it on a biography of Alexander Hamilton he read while on holiday. This is that biography. It is extremely thorough - a few chapters in and Chernow was still filling in details from the opening song. It is also an interesting portrait of a fascinating man, narrated well by Scott Brick in this audiobook version.
As a Hamilton fan myself, the element of the book I enjoyed the most was picking out the differences between the stage version and this one, seeing when Miranda had tweaked history a little to fit the themes of the musical or to stream-line things a bit. Aaron Burr, for example, who ends up shooting Hamilton in a duel, is a much more prominent figure in the musical than in the book. We get some mentions of him throughout, but the main interactions with Hamilton are far more towards the end of the historical life story. Whereas the stage-show version of Burr is always a little less organised and resents Hamilton for the latter's success, real-life Burr (while still resenting Hamilton) also manages to deceive Hamilton for his own advantage at one point - something which adds to their rivalry but which would undermine Burr's arc in the show.
Angelica Schuyler is another tweak in Miranda's version - there she knowingly decides not to pursue Hamilton in order to marry well herself and let her sister Eliza marry him instead. In the real-life story Angelica is a far more complicated character. Not only was she already married when she met Hamilton, but her flirtations with her brother-in-law were not her only flirtations... she also corresponded with Hamilton's arch-rival (both in the stage show and real life) Thomas Jefferson. I did not expect that!
Many minor characters from Hamilton's life are missing from the stage show altogether, while other interesting characters that receive only a few mentions in the book (such as Hercules Mulligan) are given more prominent roles in the stage show.
And then, there is the question: was the book any good for someone who hasn't seen the stage show?
Absolutely. Alexander Hamilton is a complex figure who had a massive influence on the founding of the United States of America. Coming from an illegitimate background in a time when that mattered even more than today (one of his close childhood friends may have even been a half brother!) he nevertheless gained a prominent position as the first Secretary of the Treasury, forming the first national banks in America, writing an incredible number of essays on numerous political topics, and doing battle (both literally and figuratively) on a number of fronts throughout his life.
I really liked this book. And I am confident that fans of history will like it just as much as fans of musicals.
Completed 19 January 2024.
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