Books, Arts & Manners Duel Loyalty

Alexander Hamilton, American, by Richard Brookhiser (Free Press, 240 pp., $25)

WHILE it might be an exaggeration to call Alexander Hamilton America’s “forgotten” founder, it is certainly true that he has been unfairly overshadowed by the monumental images of Jefferson, Washington, and even Madison. The reason could hardly be a lack of sources, since he wrote more voluminously than any other of the Founders and is the major author of the Federalist Papers. Nor could it be a want of interesting things to say about him, since the man not only led a perhaps too engrossing and varied life, but arguably did more than any of the other Founding Fathers except Washington to shape the future course of the nation: its political and legal systems, its commercial institutions, its tradition of public discourse, and its press. It is common knowledge that he has been badly served by scholars. Astonishingly, Forrest McDonald’s biography was, until now, the only first- rate study in print, and though Hamilton’s arresting image graces our ten- dollar bill, he has not become an icon. Why?

Alexander Hamilton, American, by Richard Brookhiser (Free Press, 240 pp., $25)

WHILE it might be an exaggeration to call Alexander Hamilton America’s “forgotten” founder, it is certainly true that he has been unfairly overshadowed by the monumental images of Jefferson, Washington, and even Madison. The reason could hardly be a lack of sources, since he wrote more voluminously than any other of the Founders and is the major author of the Federalist Papers. Nor could it be a want of interesting things to say about him, since the man not only led a perhaps too engrossing and varied life, but arguably did more than any of the other Founding Fathers except Washington to shape the future course of the nation: its political and legal systems, its commercial institutions, its tradition of public discourse, and its press. It is common knowledge that he has been badly served by scholars. Astonishingly, Forrest McDonald’s biography was, until now, the only first- rate study in print, and though Hamilton’s arresting image graces our ten- dollar bill, he has not become an icon. Why?