Alexander Hamilton

The #1 New York Times bestseller, and the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton! Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation. "Grand-scale biography at its best-thorough, insightful, consistently fair, and superbly written...A genuinely great book." -David McCullough "A robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all." - Joseph Ellis 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.

Ron Chernow is the prizewinning author of seven books and the recipient of the 2015 National Humanities Medal. His first book, The House of Morgan, won the National Book Award; Washington: A Life won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography; and Alexander Hamilton—the inspiration for the Broadway musical—won the George Washington Book Prize. His other books include The Warburgs, The Death of the Banker, Titan, and Grant. A past president of PEN America, Chernow has been the recipient of eight honorary doctorates. He resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Author's Note Prologue: The Oldest Revolutionary War Widow One: The Castaways Two: Hurricane Three: The Collegian Four: The Pen and the Sword Five: The Little Lion Six: A Frenzy of Valor Seven: The Lovesick Colonel Eight: Glory Nine: Raging Billows Ten: A Grave, Silent, Strange Sort of Animal Eleven: Ghosts Twelve: August and Respectable Assembly Thirteen: Publius Fourteen: Putting the Machine in Motion Fifteen: Villainous Business Sixteen: Dr. Pangloss Seventeen: The First Town in America Eighteen: Of Avarice and Enterprise Nineteen: City of the Future Twenty: Corrupt Squadrons Twenty-One: Exposure Twenty-Two: Stabbed in the Dark Twenty-Three: Citizen Genet Twenty-Four: A Disagreeable Trade Twenty-Five: Seas of Blood Twenty-Six: The Wicked Insurgents of the West Twenty-Seven: Sugar Plums and Toys Twenty-Eight: Spare Cassius Twenty-Nine: The Man in the Glass Bubble Thirty: Flying Too Near the Sun Thirty-One: An Instrument of Hell Thirty-Two: Reign of Witches Thirty-Three: Works Godly and Ungodly Thirty-Four: In an Evil Hour Thirty-Five: Gusts of Passion Thirty-Six: In a Very Belligerent Humor Thirty-Seven: Deadlock Thirty-Eight: A World Full of Folly Thirty-Nine: Pamphlet Wars Forty: The Price of Truth Forty-One: A Despicable Opinion Forty-Two: Fatal Errand Forty-Three: The Melting Scene Epilogue: Eliza Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Selected Books, Pamphlets, and Dissertations Selected Articles Index