Book Review: Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow

[inverarity]

How did America's first Secretary of the Treasury become the star of a Broadway musical? With a really good biography.

Comments

phers

[kith_koby]

A great review. I think the most pertinent point is indeed 'who tells your story?'. John Adams had his admirers, and you can see that in McCullough's biography, but you can also see hints of his bad side, which is better expounded on here. Similarly, Hamilton had his admirers, but he also had a lot of faults - which may be less visible here, but are made clearer in other books.
I have to wonder about the tendency of biographers to portray the best possible picture of the person they're writing about. Is that they've become invested in them as people, having read and researched so much? Is it that they need a likeable protagonist? At the same time, why does that mean that anyone who opposed them becomes a villain of sorts? Hamilton came off as bad in John Adams, and Adams come off as bad in Hamilton. Is this the result of the above tendency? Is there any way to solve this, or any biographer who does not have this tendency?

Re: phers

[inverarity]

Well, it was Robert Caro who started me on this presidential journey, and his biography of Lyndon Johnson is extremely critical in places. So much so that Caro has been accused of hating Johnson. At the same time, you cannot help but admire that magnificent bastard LBJ after reading Caro's work. And nobody spends a lifetime writing a five-volume biography about one man because you hate him.

(In his own words, Caro neither likes nor dislikes Johnson, but is "awed" by him.)