In curiously parallel lives, Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr were both orphaned at an early age. Both were brilliant students who attended college? one at Princeton, the other at Columbia?and studied law. Both were young staff officers under General George Washington, and both became war heroes. Politics beckoned them, and each served in the newly formed government of the fledgling nation. Why, then, did these two face each other at dawn in a duel that ended with death for one and opprobrium for the other? Judith St. George?s lively biography, told in alternating chapters, brings to life two complex men who played major roles in the formation of the United States.
Alexander Hamilton: Young Statesman (Young Patriots series)
The adult accomplishments of this Founding Father, architect of the Constitution and first Secretary of the Treasury, are legendary, and in this latest offering, children meet the young “Alec” growing up in the Caribbean as he dreams of visiting the land called America. Accompanied by his parrot, Hurry-Up, and his companion, Poleon, Alec’s tranquil days are filled with the books he loves and visits to the waterfront to greet the large ships arriving from Europe—until his uncle insists that Alec fit riding lessons into his schedule. Children will identify with Alec’s struggle to overcome his fear of horses and cheer at his courage as he narrowly escapes a violent hurricane while on horseback, all while keeping his eye on the prize—school in America. Featured sections and fun facts explain what happened next and when Alexander Hamilton lived, providing young readers with a snapshot of the leader’s entire life.
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.
Alexander Hamilton You Never Knew
This is a great overview of Alexander Hamilton. This is a classic case of not judging a man by our standards today, but judging him by the standards of his day. Hamilton was awesome because of what he did with what he started out with. His father abandoned him and his mother died by the time he was 12. Top that all off with that fact he was born and living in poverty in the West Indies. So how does a boy get from there to become the first Secretary of Treasury at the age of 35?