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.

"If Alexander Hamilton reflects its subject's far from charismatic nature, it also provides a serious, far-reaching measure of his place in history. And Mr. Chernow has done a splendid job..." Janet Maslin, The New York Times

"[A] biography commensurate with Hamilton's character, as well as the full, complex context of his unflaggingly active life....This is a fine work that captures Hamilton's life with judiciousness and verve." Publishers Weekly

"A splendid life of an enlightened reactionary and forgotten Founding Father. Literate and full of engaging historical asides. By far the best of the many lives of Hamilton now in print, and a model of the biographer's art." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

"A robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all." Joseph J. Ellis, author of Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

"This is grand-scale biography at its best — thorough, insightful, consistently fair, and superbly written....The whole life and times are here in a genuinely great book." David McCullough, author of John Adams

"[T]here is no Hamilton monument in Washington, but at least we now have Ron Chernow's moving and masterly Alexander Hamilton, which is by far the best biography ever written about the man." David Brooks, The New York Times Book Review

"A first-rate life and excellent addition to the ongoing debate about Hamilton's importance in the shaping of America." Library Journal

From National Book Award winner Ron Chernow comes a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation.

From National Book Award winner Ron Chernow, a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation.

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.

An illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, Hamilton rose with stunning speed to become George Washington's aide-de-camp, a member of the Constitutional Convention, coauthor of The Federalist Papers, leader of the Federalist party, and the country's first Treasury secretary. 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.

For the first time, Chernow captures the personal life of this handsome, witty, and perennially controversial genius and explores his poignant relations with his wife Eliza, their eight children, and numberless friends. This engrossing narrative will dispel forever the stereotype of the Founding Fathers as wooden figures and show that, for all their greatness, they were fiery, passionate, often flawed human beings.

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.

An honors graduate of Yale and Cambridge, Ron Chernow is one of the most distinguished commentators on politics and business in America today. His first book, The House of Morgan, won the National Book Award as the best non-fiction book of 1990 and is considered a modern classic. His second book, The Warburgs, won the prestigious George S. Eccles Prize for the best business book of 1993 and was cited by the American Library Association as one of the year's ten best works. His other books include a collection of essays, The Death of the Banker, and a biography of John D. Rockefeller, entitled Titan. A frequent contributor to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Chernow lives with his wife in Brooklyn, New York.

Author's Note xi
Prologue: The Oldest Revolutionary War Widow 1
The Castaways 7
Hurricane 29
The Collegian 41
The Pen and the Sword 62
The Little Lion 83
A Frenzy of Valor 107
The Lovesick Colonel 126
Glory 154
Raging Billows 167
A Grave, Silent, Strange Sort of Animal 187
Ghosts 203
August and Respectable Assembly 219
Publius 243
Putting the Machine in Motion 270
Villainous Business 291
Dr. Pangloss 310
The First Town in America 332
Of Avarice and Enterprise 344
City of the Future 362
Corrupt Squadrons 389
Exposure 409
Stabbed in the Dark 419
Citizen Genêt 431
A Disagreeable Trade 448
Seas of Blood 458
The Wicked Insurgents of the West 468
Sugar Plums and Toys 482
Spare Cassius 501
The Man in the Glass Bubble 517
Flying Too Near the Sun 526
An Instrument of Hell 546
Reign of Witches 569
Works Godly and Ungodly 580
In an Evil Hour 592
Gusts of Passion 603
In a Very Belligerent Humor 619
Deadlock 630
A World Full of Folly 640
Pamphlet Wars 657
The Price of Truth 665
A Despicable Opinion 680
Fatal Errand 695v The Melting Scene 710
Epilogue: Eliza 723
Acknowledgements 733
Notes 739
Bibliography 780
Selected Books, Pamphlets, and Dissertations 780
Selected Articles 786
Index 791