Alexander Hamilton

By: Ron Chernow

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 35 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's summary

The inspiration for the hit Broadway musical 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.

©2004 Ron Chernow (P)2004 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

• George Washington Book Prize Winner, 2005

"Comprehensive and superbly written." (Booklist)
"This is a fine work that captures Hamilton's life with judiciousness and verve." (Publishers Weekly)
"Literate and full of engaging historical asides. By far the best of the many lives of Hamilton now in print." (Kirkus Reviews)
"Scott Brick delivers a highly professional, straightforward narration that holds one's interest throughout. Straight narrative can become boring, and Brick is never that. Nor does he become lazy in the course of 36 hours. His voice and evident interest are fresh throughout." (AudioFile)

Caveat

There's always a caveat to audiobooks or books like this. They will enrich your knowledge so much, but are so voluminous that you must commit weeks or months to completing them. I did not know much about Alexander Hamilton before reading this, other than a vague sense that he was one of those white dudes who founded the country. This audio book blew me away with knowledge about all the struggles he and George and others went through to get this country started on the right foot and keep it there as long as they lived. Truly remarkable. I feel like if every American read this, maybe we wouldn't squabble so much over petty things and understand truly what a remarkable country this is and how tumultuous was its birth.

Fantastic historical journey

This was a fascinating look at Alexander Hamilton. It was also a great refresher on US History and I had forgotten quite a bit about the Revolutionary War and early 1800s. I highly recommend this biography to any history buffs. Author Ron Chernow gives you so many details that you will definitely walk away feeling like you know the man better.

fantastic

one of the best bio's I have read -- what an amazing contribution AH made to this country. A superbly written account of an incredible person.

Exhaustive but a fantastic read

Although there were times were I struggled to continue with this marathon of a novel it was a terrific read. Full of American history and a neat insight into the foundations of which our country is built upon. Definitely recommend.

An incredible portrait

I loved this book. I never had any understanding of Hamilton before this--if anything I had quite a negative impression of him from reading John Adams. (Now I understand why!) But Chernow's has a true gift for bringing these men alive: Hamilton, Jefferson, Adams among others. He also makes them very human without any pop psych analyses. Chernow paints a portrait of a brilliant man who was also flawed in enough ways to be his own worst enemy at times. I can't say I found Hamilton lovable, but I did care a great deal about him at the end, and was actually pretty heartbroken when he died. Chernow also painted a marvelous portrait of Jefferson and Adams. I learned more about them from this book than I have from any of the other books I've read, including John Adams. Chernow seems to really understand Hamilton in a way I've never seen any other writer understand him. Thank you, Ron Chernow, for bringing to life one of the most important men in our history.

A wonderfully detailed look at one of America’s most Brilliant Founding Fathers.

Chernow brings Hamilton to life in a way few have before. This book could easily be a text book for American history from the The Revolution through the early 1800’s. While it knocks Thomas Jefferson down a peg or two, it paints a very detailed portrait of one of the US’s greatest constitutional and organizational architects .

Sine Qua Non for the Hamilton Musical

A truly phenomenal work of art from Chernow, with a masterful auditory accompaniment by Scott Brick. I personally came to read/listen to the narrative after becoming one of many fans of the Hamilton Musical Soundtrack - this may come as no surprise to those who were more informed than I was prior to listening to the biography, but a fair amount of lines from the soundtrack were taken verbatim from historical figures. I don't want to give anything away, but hearing them spoken and understanding the context of their origins is breathtaking and surreal - in one moment, there exists a convergence of historical utterances, scriptural representations thereof, and musical repetition, reviving the colors of the past in an absolutely amazing fashion. Hamilton, like many of the great Framers of the world, was an endlessly complex individual, and after listening to the audiobook and spending some time at introspection, my unquestionably amateur analysis yields the conclusion that the soundtrack, as masterfully constructed as it is, due to the limitations of time and form, doesn't quite do justice to the legacy (🎵 what is a legacy? 🎵) of one Alexander Hamilton. I cannot recommend highly enough this book; I have no doubt that I'll purchase a hard copy to re-read in the future, but this was a fantastic purchase regardless.

Excellent and gripping story and performance!

The stories of Alexander Hamilton, his wife, and American history lace through this superior biography with gripping detail. I learned a lot! I may read it again!

Awesome,. awesome

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

loved it. great book, great story and so much information that we dont really learn in school.

review of Hamilton

the narration was excellent. the story left me speechless and with a new appreciation for the history of my country and the hero that shaped it.