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Terfex.com - Alexander Hamilton
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List Price: $39.95
Our Price: $26.37
Your Save: $ 13.58 ( 34% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Penguin Audio
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.4092
EAN: 9780142800430
Format: Abridged
ISBN: 0142800430
Label: Penguin Audio
Manufacturer: Penguin Audio
Number Of Items: 10
Number Of Pages: 11
Publication Date: 2004-04-26
Publisher: Penguin Audio
Release Date: 2004-04-22
Studio: Penguin Audio
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Editorial Reviews:
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Ron Chernow, the renowned author of Titan whom the New York Times has called "as elegant an architect of monumental histories as we’ve seen in decades," vividly re-creates the whole sweep of Alexander Hamilton’s turbulent life—his exotic, brutal upbringing; his titanic feuds with celebrated rivals; his pivotal role in defining the shape of the federal government and the American economy; his shocking illicit romances; his enlightened abolitionism; and his famous death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July 1804. Drawing upon extensive, unparalleled research— including nearly fifty previously undiscovered essays highlighting Hamilton’s fiery journalism as well as his revealing missives to colleagues and friends—this biography of the extraordinarily gifted founding father who galvanized, inspired, and scandalized the newborn nation is the work by which all others will be measured.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: An almost forgotten founding father
Comment: The author Ron Chernow is an excellent author and researcher. His exhaustive research breathes life into his subject matter. Alexander Hamilton is vetted and exposed for all his brilliance and vanity. After reading this book, one realizes that Hamilton deserves to be placed with the top tier of the founding fathers of this country. He was as smart as Franklin, wrote as well as Jefferson, and argued a case better than John Adams. Chernow, as a biographer is in the class of Robert Caro and other great current biographers. I will buy every book that Chernow writes that is how good he is as a writer!
Customer Rating:
Summary: changed my mind about hamilton
Comment: I read this because I had a long standing white-hot hatred of Hamilton, so much so that it amused my friends. One of them suggested I read this book to get a different perspective, and it really did turn me around a bit. Hamilton is still a political fool, but he's a military and financial genius, and the USA would be much worse off without him.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Comment: Just by reading the sample chapters on my Kindle, Ron Chernow has hit another home run. I couldn't put it down. This is a brilliant biography of Alexander Hamiltion, and how he has grown into prominence. The beauty of it, though, is how he got there. It wasn't an easy journey. I will definitely purchase this book because it is worth the read.
The reviewers--and critics alike-- are right, so go out and purchase this book. You won't regret it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The authoritative Alexander Hamilton
Comment: This is a book that can only be described as magisterial. Epic in length, engrossing in its details, Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton has to be the authoritative account of the great man's life. At nearly 800 pages, it covers his unique upbringing and the insights it brought him into free trade and slavery, along with fascinating details (like how his Sephardic teacher taught him the Decalogue in Hebrew, a lifelong point of pride for the philo-Semite), and the whole trajectory of the country's original and most accomplished meritocrat. Chernow convincingly makes the case that Hamilton was America's prophet, the only one of his generation who saw the country not only for what it was, but what it would become: a free-trading republican democracy that would take the place of Britain in leading the world.
However, though the book records his energy, his bubbling ideas, and his titanic achievements, it is hardly hagiographic and lays out his colossal errors in judgment, from the Maria Reynolds affair to the misplaced sense of honor that hurt his political career and ultimately ended his life. Though his accomplishments were far more impressive than any founding father, save Washington, it is difficult to get the sense from Chernow that Hamilton would have made a good president without a powerful legislature or a Washington-like figure keeping his authoritarian impulses in check.
Almost always fair-minded, Chernow lays out Hamilton's place in history and portrays the founding generation in their full colors, from the highs of the Federalist Papers to the lows of the Genet affair. Finally, for those readers who already have their favorite founding father (or mother), be forewarned: any fair-minded book on Hamilton will by necessity increase his standing in American history and correspondingly diminish the standing of the other founders - Madison, Adams, and (especially) Jefferson. This book is no exception.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
Comment: This is a phenomenal contribution to the understanding of America's most influential founding father. Chernow brings the man to full dimension, in a well-researched and empathetic manner.
The backdrop of this tragic tale is also brought to textured life in the colorful and descriptive letters of the the subject's contemporaries.
Although Chernow is clearly an admirer of Hamilton, he does not shy away from criticizing him. The author often recounts certain events in a manner characteristic of a best friend who, although feeling great affection, understands but does not condone his failings.
I have read the book and listened to the audio CD's twice. And every time I get to the last chapter, I feel that I am about to lose a good friend.
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