Alexander Hamilton

Description

The bestselling life of one of America's founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, which became the basis for the hugely successful Broadway show Hamilton. Alexander Hamilton was an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean who overcame all the odds to become George Washington's aide-de-camp and the first Treasury Secretary of the United States. Few figures in American history are more controversial than Alexander Hamilton. In this masterful work, Chernow shows how the political and economic power of America today is the result of Hamilton's willingness to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. He charts his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Monroe and Burr; his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds; his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza; and the notorious duel with Aaron Burr that led to his death in July 1804. This book was adapted into a hugely successful Broadway musical - nominated for a record 16 Tony awards and winner of 11 - opens at the Victoria Palace Theatre in November 2017.

Ron Chernow is the Pulitzer prize-winning author of Washington: A Life (2011). Alexander Hamilton and Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., were both nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award in biography. Chernow lives in New York.

'A brilliant recreation of the society and culture of the time: thoughtful and playful, moving and powerful' Michael Gove. 'A mammoth work of research that charted the course of Hamilton's dazzling career and the dark controversies that accompanied it' Guardian. 'A magnificent biography' The Spectator. 'This handsome new edition [is] an elegantly written, richly detailed account of Hamilton's tempestuous life' The Times. 'Chernow charts his way through Hamilton's hectic life, and the tumultuous times in which he lived, with aplomb' Military History Monthly. 'That biography is incredible. It out-Dickenses Charles Dickens' Lin-Manuel Miranda.