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[twunny]

Just as undertaking a comprehensive, yet readable biography of Alexander Hamilton was a mammoth task, I seem to be having trouble coming up with a succinct and accurate synopsis and review of this 740-pager. And as usual, I wonder: what can I say that the publisher didn't already say on the book's back cover?
For some reason, I've always had a quiet, unexplained curiosity about the man on the 10-dollar bill. In grade school and up through college, one hears stories about the founding fathers. But chiefly Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Adams (with the generous help of HBO.)
There are a lot of may know/may not know facts about Alexander Hamilton.
He was not born in America, but in the West Indies.
He was Washington's Right Hand Man. From about halfway through the Revolutionary War, through most of Washington's second term as President, Hamilton was an advisor, secretary and official scribe. Eventually, friend.
Hamilton established the financial system that bound the country together and helped attain international financial and street credit.
He did not get along with Jefferson.
He barely got along with Adams.
He got along famously with Monroe at first. Then they were polar opposites.
He helped write the Consitution, and devoted his life to it. But he saw it as a "flawed document."
He foresaw the Civil War, 60 years before it happened.
[And this is just some of the stuff I've retained and can recall off-the-cuff, which I think says quite a bit about the book.]
Alexander Hamilton was a great orator, a great writer, a great patriot, and a great man. And this book helped me know him very well, without boring me or dragging. It not only delved into this man, but gave me insight into other great (and not-so-great) men of the period, and into the period itself.
Alexander Hamilton exceeded all my expectations. My only complaint is that, despite its thoroughness, there are some mysteries that cannot be solved. The paperwork is disintegrated, or burned, or bug-eaten, or missing. But what exists, and what Ron Chernow delivers, paints a picture of an amazing founding father, without whom this country would not be as great as it is today.
Oh yeah, I went there.
It's the kind of book that reminds me of what can be so great about America. It's a shame a lot of other crap from the modern world has to make "proud to be an American" a bad thing. But that's a different rant.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book.
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I am a dirty liar. And I'm lying when I say that.