ALEXANDER HAMILTON, American

Rating:
Summary: Too Superficial
Review: Like Brookhiser's previous book on George Washington, this is essentially a superficial and extended essay. Nevertheless, the book does illustrate the awesome versatility of Hamilton: ardent patriot in the Revolution, key author of the Federalist papers and one of the men who got the US Constitution ratified and as first Secretary of the Treasury, the father of the American capitalist system. Unfortunately, Brookhiser does not do this distinguished career justice; Hamilton's role at Trenton and his assault on Redoubt No. 9 at Yorktown is barely mentioned. Hamilton's admission of responsibility in the nation's first public sex scandal is interesting in light of the contemporary Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. However, by the end of the book, Brookhiser is quite tedious.

Rating:
Summary: reclaiming a hero of the founding
Review: [Y]ou wanted to organize the country so that we should all/ stick together and make a little money. -William Carlos Williams, Paterson

In two previous books Richard Brookhiser sought to explain, with considerable success, the most elusive of the Founders, George Washington. Here he seeks to reclaim the reputation of the most underrated and misunderstood, again successfully. Though he won a spot on the $10 bill, Alexander Hamilton--because he favored a strong federal government--has traditionally been portrayed as some kind of enemy of democracy. The fact that his main political opponent was Thomas Jefferson, the darling of the Left, has led to much ill treatment by historians. And his untimely demise at the hands of Aaron Burr has tended to link him in our minds with that least worthy of men. In this short but sufficient biography, Brookhiser demonstrates the surprising degree to which Hamilton was responsible for creating and shaping the American nation, both through the force of his ideas and, at the vital moment, by getting the United States' financial house in order.

Like many of the Founders, Hamilton's own talents and the extraordinary events of the day allowed or required him to prove himself adept in a variety of endeavors. In addition to being perhaps the only leader of any influence to really understand economics, Hamilton was a successful lawyer and soldier. But the real revelation, and considering the Federalist Papers it should not be, is how influential he was as a writer. His sheer output was voluminous, and he both addressed all of the important issues of the day, and actually convinced people to change their minds--whether advocating that the Constitution be adopted, that the Federal government assume pre-existing debt, or that an industrial economy was better suited to improving the lot of most citizens than an agrarian economy (Report on Manufactures).

Because Madison is a co-author of the Federalists, and was the main author of the Constitution itself, he has tended to overshadow Hamilton. But Brookhiser makes a strong case for Hamilton being the more influential advocate. He also makes the case that Madison was something of a chameleon, taking on the coloration of those around him, and that the Constitution's delicate system of balances might have been much different had Hamilton not presented and argued for his more powerful and centralized federal plan. This would certainly explain why Hamilton became such an impassioned defender of the Constitution that Madison drafted, that it represented an even handed attempt to meet Hamilton's concerns.

The most heart breaking of Hamilton's writings is his explanation of his affair with Maria Reynolds. When Hamilton realized that she and her husband were running an elaborate badger game he ended the affair, but it was later publicized by his enemies. In a move of remarkable candor, Hamilton published a brutally frank pamphlet which laid bare his role in the whole sordid mess but defended himself from false charges of corruption. Though the romance is a black mark on his record, his handling of it redounds to his credit.

The Reynolds Affair is only one of several points where this two century old story intersects with or casts light on current affairs. Here's Brookhiser discussing Burr :

[A]n old man who had met an old Aaron Burr when he was young was asked about Burr's 'rare attraction,' and said it came from 'his manner of listening. He seemed...to find so much more meaning in your words than you had intended; no flattery was more subtle.' Listening is a virtue of the judicious and the compassionate. But narcissists also do it surpassingly well. We associate Narcissus with beauty and self-regard, but the key to his myth is that it is about surfaces. Narcissus was captivated by his reflection because that was all he had. Narcissists must live through their interactions, because there is no one home. Burr's charm, attentiveness, and promiscuity; his ability to get schemes going, and his failure to follow them through; his lack of principle--all flow from his character. He was like a new refrigerator--bright, cold, and empty.

It is frightening how easily Bill Clinton's name can be substituted for Burr's in that savvy assessment.

In the end, Hamilton's greatest contribution may have been in the realm of financial affairs. His writings reveal him to be perhaps the only one of the Founders who anticipated the coming of the industrial world. He certainly had a clearer vision of the future than his more celebrated rival Thomas Jefferson, whose fetishistic love of the land led him to countenance slavery, which Hamilton opposed. Beyond theory, it was Hamilton's concrete achievements as the first Secretary of the Treasury--founding the first National Bank, accepting responsibility for Colonial debt, and installing tariffs to provide a steady source of Federal revenues--that put the young nation on a sturdy financial footing and make him one of the greatest Cabinet Secretaries of all time.

Hamilton's too short life was so event filled and Brookhiser is such a good writer that the book seems almost too brief. But wanting more is a pretty paltry criticism and the book is an invaluable corrective to our woefully inadequate understanding of Hamilton's service to the country and his character as a man. At one point Brookhiser sums up the reason why Hamilton is not as well regarded as some of his peers :

There are three modes of leadership. The highest is inspiration: rare, sometimes false, but impossible to live without. Next is demonstration--honestly sharing all your reasons with all comers; explaining where they come from, and where they lead. Lowest is flattery, which either fools both the leader and his followers, or fools no one, but is indulged because followers and leaders are too tired to think of anything else. Hamilton seldom rose to the highest level, and would not sink to the lowest. His greatest rivals, such as Jefferson, inhabited all three, especially the first and the third; hence their success.

This is nicely stated and is just one example of the author's really penetrating insight into his subject. Read the book and you'll look at those $10's with a newfound appreciation for an American hero.

GRADE : A+

Rating:
Summary: A balancing view
Review: Historians have found it convenient to pigeonhole Hamilton in the role of supporter of the crown in America, though he advocated a different form of king. Brookhiser paints a contrasting picture, that of one of our early immigrant success stories. Hamilton (said to be an ancestor of mine) rose from illegitimacy and abandonment by his father to become an independently successful attorney and politician. Yet he always maintained his reverence for the country that allowed the upward mobility that he could find in no other place in the world. There is plenty to command the attention of spectators of our early history in this book. We are led to revere Hamilton's single minded attention to securing the proper role of government in guaranteeing the freedom to succeed. His idea of a strong central government, while rejected by the Jeffersonian republicans, seems prescient in light of subsequent developments.

Rating:
Summary: Colorful, Informative Information on a Founding Father
Review: I have found this book quite colorful and informative, giving detailed insight on what made Alexander Hamilton the man tick. It was also a treat discover that his influence is still seen (i.e. his newspaper, US Treasury) even today. For anyone remotely interested in the founding of the United States, starting here is a must.

Rating:
Summary: Good Brief Life
Review: Short biographies, led by the "Penguins Lives" series, are making a comeback and Brookhiser's life of Hamilton is a welcome non-Penguin addition. Short lives seem to fall into one of two categories: We are presented the life and pretty much left on our own to conclude why the subject was worth writing about (literary, juvenile and sports biographies are of this type) or we are presented with only sketches of the life as the author writes an interpretive essay on the subject. Brookhiser's book falls into the latter category. Indeed, three of the ten chapters are self-contained essays on Hamilton's words, views on rights, and passions. The result of this essay approach is often that the subject never quite leaps off the pages. Brookhiser seems more interested in Hamilton as a historical figure - someone who made his way onto the 10 dollar bill - than as a flesh and blood human being who dies in a duel. Still, once we accept the limitation's of the "brief lives" approach, there is much to like. Brookhiser has interesting ideas about Hamilton's status as an outsider and his views on American society and slavery. He makes effective points on why we should know about Hamilton. He seems to have read and digested Hamilton's writings, although as one previous reviewer noted, he does seem to cite back to the same sources too often. He understands about politics in the age of passion. It's a good, if not complete, picture of Hamilton.

Rating:
Summary: A Good Introduction
Review: I agree with the observations of some of the other reviewers, that the book is superficial in some regards and almost blithe about Hamilton's personality.

However, it is a fantastic introduction to a rather maligned founding father. A complex character who has been stereotyped into the high school history dichotomy along with Jefferson; Jefferson the one receiving the most slack. A&E's recent movie on Washington presents Hamilton as a subdued dullard. So it is refreshing to read a work that goes against the pro-Jefferson assumptions and illustrates a complicated genius and a dedicated American.

Rating:
Summary: A biography of Alex H, but also a 'biography'of politics
Review: A biography of Alex H, but even more so a 'biography', better a desertation on, politics in general but, perhaps, especially as praticed at the time; the context and times, it's principles and personalities, rendered with uncommon wit and dry humor and reveling with candor the aptitudes, abilities, limitations, weakness and strengths of the person reflecting, as it were, on the politician - actors in gereral thus allowing the whole be become more real and, hence, more like life as we live it. Just as important you can see Alex H and Thos J as two sides of a Geo W coin minted by Ben F and others of vision. Perhaps the real coin of the realm, the first better at 'seeing' the future and organizing the human condition and the second better at defining the human spirt and the risks of organizations but both most complex individuals. Defititly not a dry history taken from 'musty parchments'.

Rating:
Summary: Close, but...
Review: I'm not of the belief that this work does Alexander Hamilton or his contemporaries a diservice, but neither am I of the feeling that it does them justice, either. Given its short length, I was surprised by the tendency to repeat a few chosen themes far too often while equally ignoring pertinent periods and/or events in the life of the subject. Clearly mr. Brookhiser can write, but I suspect that neither he nor his editors (if they truly exist) intend for Alexander Hamilton, American to read with the degree of tragic-hipness that it conveys.

Rating:
Summary: Hamilton Favored "Upward Mobility"
Review: Brookhiser's book is important because it reminds the reader of the democratic side of Hamilton which has been lost by other recent biographers. One must go back at least to the 1926 "Jefferson and Hamilton" by a Harvard professor to get a fair, thorough, accurate and definitive treatment of Hamilton and his most important work. And yet, this book also throws in references to sedan chair transportation in fin de siecle New York, mentions that Madison was Burr's roommate at Princeton, and points out that Philadelphia was the world's second largest English-speaking city in 1800, with a population of only 30,000.

The book is heavy, and should not have left out McClay's diary entry about Washinton's halting delivery of his First Inaugural (I was glad to see he was not first in EVERYTHING!) What Brookhiser DOES see is this West Indian bastard's deep appreciation for a land where a youth of superior ability can rise to the right hand of the nation's surpreme leader without the background of a "good" family. Hamilton is too often portrayed as a pawn of the monied interests, with contempt for the people. He was, in fact, a key architect of this self-governing republic, whose disagreements with, say, Jefferson, were more about degree than really fundamental principles. Brookshiser sees this, and reminds us, which is this book's value.

Rating:
Summary: Hamilton the one economics expert among the Founders
Review: The most fascinating part of the biography was the description of his learning economics and setting up the new country's financial system. Unlike many other founding fathers who never made it outside of Independence Hall, Hamilton served in the military under Washington. The portrayal of Burr was also interesting. Revisionists have painted Burr as being a moderate recently, but the biographer points out that Washington never trusted him or had much use for him. Unlike other great men who lose your respect the more you learn about them, I respected Hamilton more after reading the book.