Hello there, bookworms and Happy Sunday! I hope you’re all enjoying the remainder of your weekend (hopefully with a book) before another week sneaks up on us.
I spent last night re-designing the blog in case you notice a different, toned down look, and today, I’m enjoying a pot of coffee, some travel shows, writing, and if all goes well, some R&R because I am NOT ready for Monday.
Before I go about the rest of my day, I wanted to pop in and bring you all a book review. As usual, my books are just stacking up and I feel like I can’t keep up with reviews lately. I also feel like I can’t keep up with reading lately either. However, I feel like putting pressure on yourself to churn things out will cripple the process. I don’t want to rush through my books just for the sake of posting reviews to get a count up. I want to take my time to enjoy the hard work the author put into their stories and then take time to process how the experience made me feel and hopefully bring about a worthwhile review for you all.
That being said, today I’m reviewing a book I’ve been reading on-and-off for the last two years! Insane, right? I’ll explain. Let’s talk about the fascinating biography of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow.
Ron Chernow, whom the New York Times called “as elegant an architect of monumental histories as we’ve seen in decades”, now brings to startling life the man who was arguably the most important figure in American history, who never attained the presidency, but who had a far more lasting impact than many who did.
With masterful storytelling skills, Chernow presents the whole sweep of Hamilton’s turbulent life: his exotic, brutal upbringing; his brilliant military, legal, and financial exploits; his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and Monroe; his illicit romances; and his famous death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July 1804.
Alexander Hamilton was one of the seminal figures in our history. His richly dramatic saga, rendered in Chernow’s vivid prose, is nothing less than a riveting account of America’s founding, from the Revolutionary War to the rise of the first federal government.
As stated above, this book took me two years to finish. I listened to it on Audible but still found it heavy and filled with so much information that I took significant breaks so I didn’t find myself overwhelmed (818 pages on an exceedingly ambitious Founding Father can become a ton of information very quickly).
I walked away from this book with a head full of information and a great admiration for Alexander Hamilton.
One of America’s most notorious founders had one of the most complex and ambitious lives from his humble and tragic beginnings on a small island, orphaned by age 12, to his sponsorship to the American colonies and the life he built for himself. A trusted aid to camp for general George Washington, Hamilton served various roles throughout the revolution before moving on to other aspirations.
From endlessly writing the Federalist Papers defending the Constitution, becoming a prominent lawyer, serving in Washington’s Cabinet as the first Secretary of Treasury, being a member of the Continental Congress as a New York delegate for the Constitutional Convention, finding himself involved in the first major sex scandal in America, establishing a newspaper, and founding the National Bank, his famous feuds with Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson, and his untimely death in my home state of New Jersey, Hamilton’s life was short, driven, controversial, intricate, and beyond impressive. I spent much of my time preoccupied wondering how one person could do so much day-in and day-out and have the impact that he did on our very foundation without actually serving as president.
After reading this book, I realized how much Hamilton worked behind the scenes throughout many facets of society, finance, and our economy that we still know and appreciate today. He made many decisions that were carried out by Washington while in office, established our currency, helped to secure trade and alliances, worked to eliminate war debts, and created perspectives on law that are still practiced throughout our country.
What struck me most on this journey was how imperfect these founders actually were. With such a handful of passionate individuals from the north and south of the U.S. with various perspectives of how to get our colonies up and running, came many quarrels and differences. It amazed me how often the prominent figures fought with one another over ideas and beliefs that haven’t been enacted yet. It made it fascinating to realize that they were very much flawed humans who were working and fighting even amongst themselves to get a government up and running that they weren’t even sure would work.
In thinking about all of this in today’s world and the tumultuous world of American Politics today, I did a lot of comparing and contrasting (mostly contrasting) between the then and now. Politicians these days are quick to declare who of us are the real patriots on this soil and they’re quick to crucify those who believe differently, and especially now, bipartisanship has virtually become non-existent, but I have to wonder if they actually understand the complexity and the nuances of what a small number of men hashed out so long ago. I can promise even I don’t understand it even after so much reading, traveling, and studying of these men who have long since left this earth. By all accounts, they were fairly petty and sometimes spent more time disagreeing on policy than actually working (sounds familiar). They were passionate in their pursuits of freedom and independence, for a system that often contradicted itself and wasn’t guaranteed to work or stand the tests of time. The fact that Hamilton’s life was cut short due to his writings and political conflicts with then Vice President, Aaron Burr shows that these men would die for their beliefs. Nowadays, true patriotism seems to be confused with nationalism. There’s a very fine line between the two that is often crossed when the foundations are not fully understood or appreciated as to what it took to get this country off the ground.
Traveling through Hamilton’s life with him genuinely brought me back to another time that I love to learn about. I got to experience all the ups and downs of his life as well as the life of our young country which made me appreciate and ache for it so much more. Experiencing Hamilton’s funeral through the streets of New York broke my heart and admittedly, I shed a few tears that such a genuinely passionate and intelligent man lost his life before his time. I’m also thankful to his late wife, Eliza Schuyler Hamilton for making sure the world knew how much her husband contributed to the world by accumulating and publishing his writings and other work so that we can all know the complex man she knew.
This was an adventure 2 years in the making and now that it’s over, I still want to know more, but I also want to learn more about the other Founding Fathers to get their perspectives on the birth of a country as well.
If you’re captivated by biographies and the lives of prominent figures, I can’t recommend Alexander Hamilton enough. I certainly know I’ll look to him when it comes to finding writing inspiration, ambition, and passion for my insanely flawed country. He may be long gone, but his words and ideas remain, and I’m thankful I got to experience some of them in Chernow’s fabulous book.
Until next time, happy reading!
