Alexander Hamilton

Ron Chernow

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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.

Ron Chernow won the National Book Award in 1990 for his first book, The House of Morgan, and his second book, The Warburgs, won the Eccles Prize as the Best Business Book of 1993. His biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr., Titan, was a national bestseller and a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist.

Author's Note   xi

Prologue: The Oldest Revolutionary War Widow   1

1. The Castaways   7
2. Hurricane   29
3. The Collegian   41
4. The Pen and the Sword   62
5. The Little Lion   83
6. A Frenzy of Valor   107
7. The Lovesick Colonel   126
8. Glory   154
9. Raging Billows   167
10. A Grave, Silent, Strange Sort of Animal   187
11. Ghosts   203
12. August and Respectable Assembly   219
13. Publius   243
14. Putting the Machine in Motion   270
15. Villainous Business   291
16. Dr. Pangloss   310
17. The First Town in America   332
18. Of Avarice and Enterprise   344
19. City of the Future   362
20. Corrupt Squadrons   389
21. Exposure   409
22. Stabbed in the Dark   419
23. Citizen Genêt   431
24. A Disagreeable Trade   448
25. Seas of Blood   458
26. The Wicked Insurgents of the West   468
27. Sugar Plums and Toys   482
28. Spare Cassius   501
29. The Man in the Glass Bubble   517
30. Flying Too Near the Sun   526
31. An Instrument of Hell   546
32. Reign of Witches   569
33. Works Godly and Ungodly   580
34. In an Evil Hour   592
35. Gusts of Passion   603
36. In a Very Belligerent Humor   619
37. Deadlock   630
38. A World Full of Folly   640
39. Pamphlet Wars   657
40. The Price of Truth   665
41. A Despicable Opinion   680
42. Fatal Errand   695
43. The Melting Scene   710

Epilogue: Eliza   723

 

Acknowledgements   733

Notes   739

Bibliography   780

Selected Books, Pamphlets, and Dissertations   780

Selected Articles   786

Index   791

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