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taliaxxx's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
3.75
If you love the musical you’ll love this but it’s more accurate 😂
neglet's review against another edition
5.0
A clear, concise biography with plenty of context to help readers make sense of the history.
beths0103's review against another edition
4.0
This Hamilton biography is not nearly the slog that the Chernow one is, but it is still dense and involves a time-commitment. Don’t count on finishing it in a matter of a couple days.
In addition to accessible but still challenging text, Brockenbrough provides excellent backmatter to help readers better understand the time period.
What stands out the most in this Hamilton biography is what a man of principle he was, which was ultimately his hamartia, losing his life in a duel to his political rival, Aaron Burr.
In addition to accessible but still challenging text, Brockenbrough provides excellent backmatter to help readers better understand the time period.
What stands out the most in this Hamilton biography is what a man of principle he was, which was ultimately his hamartia, losing his life in a duel to his political rival, Aaron Burr.
ladypalutena's review against another edition
4.0
This is a book I came across a few months ago at the library (although I’m writing this in the beginning of October, so I found this the last week of September), and since it had Hamilton on the front, of course I picked it up. I have a deep obsession with Alexander Hamilton, thanks to me jumping on the Lin-Manuel Miranda bandwagon. I haven’t seen the show yet, but I know all the lyrics by heart.
I do own the Kindle version of the Chernow biography, bought because I needed something long to read on a trip to Europe last year, but I never finished it. I found that it was very hard to keep my interested. Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary by Martha Brockenbrough solves that problem. Of course, it is a teen biography, but I did find it informative.
The biography starts with Hamilton’s mother and childhood in the West Indies, but moves relatively quickly through his younger and teen years, dumping the reader in American by page 29. From there, it covers Hamilton’s early college years, his time in the Revolutionary War, and his part in building the US government.
I thought I knew a lot about Hamilton’s history from the play, although I knew there were some major differences. I wasn’t expecting there to be so much that the biography detailed that the play glossed over — and, on the flip side, how much the play covered that this biography glossed over. Like it barely mentions Angelica, or even much about Phillip Hamilton aside from his duel and its outcome. We don’t even get to know much about Alexander’s children!
Brockenbrough has even included several mini-guides at the back of the book to finances, government, rules for duels, major battles of the Revolutionary War, and more. There’s a timeline of Hamilton’s life, as well as a short passage on what happened to Burr once he’d killed Hamilton. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t pretty.)
Overall, I think this is a great introduction to the the $10 Founding Father. There are a lot of pictures, and I enjoyed finding new facts about Hamilton I didn’t know. For example, I didn’t know he had been at Valley Forge. While there are a few gaps, I think overall, it’s great for teenagers, or adults who have a passing interesting in Hamilton or just want to know what the entire fuss is about but doesn’t want to commit to a 500+ page behemoth of a tome.
In terms of a YA Biography, I’d give this a 4/5 stars. There are some things I would’ve appreciated further information on, and some things that I feel like were just extra. If you’ve already read a Hamilton biography, you can probably skip this one. If you’re a Hamilton enthusiast, or if you’ve never read anything about him before, this is probably a great place to start. With the double-spread maps throughout the book, and the numerous portraits, you will never be lost as to who is who and what is what.
I do own the Kindle version of the Chernow biography, bought because I needed something long to read on a trip to Europe last year, but I never finished it. I found that it was very hard to keep my interested. Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary by Martha Brockenbrough solves that problem. Of course, it is a teen biography, but I did find it informative.
The biography starts with Hamilton’s mother and childhood in the West Indies, but moves relatively quickly through his younger and teen years, dumping the reader in American by page 29. From there, it covers Hamilton’s early college years, his time in the Revolutionary War, and his part in building the US government.
I thought I knew a lot about Hamilton’s history from the play, although I knew there were some major differences. I wasn’t expecting there to be so much that the biography detailed that the play glossed over — and, on the flip side, how much the play covered that this biography glossed over. Like it barely mentions Angelica, or even much about Phillip Hamilton aside from his duel and its outcome. We don’t even get to know much about Alexander’s children!
Brockenbrough has even included several mini-guides at the back of the book to finances, government, rules for duels, major battles of the Revolutionary War, and more. There’s a timeline of Hamilton’s life, as well as a short passage on what happened to Burr once he’d killed Hamilton. (Spoiler alert: it wasn’t pretty.)
Overall, I think this is a great introduction to the the $10 Founding Father. There are a lot of pictures, and I enjoyed finding new facts about Hamilton I didn’t know. For example, I didn’t know he had been at Valley Forge. While there are a few gaps, I think overall, it’s great for teenagers, or adults who have a passing interesting in Hamilton or just want to know what the entire fuss is about but doesn’t want to commit to a 500+ page behemoth of a tome.
In terms of a YA Biography, I’d give this a 4/5 stars. There are some things I would’ve appreciated further information on, and some things that I feel like were just extra. If you’ve already read a Hamilton biography, you can probably skip this one. If you’re a Hamilton enthusiast, or if you’ve never read anything about him before, this is probably a great place to start. With the double-spread maps throughout the book, and the numerous portraits, you will never be lost as to who is who and what is what.
sam_riccio's review against another edition
5.0
A lot of people became fascinated with Alexander Hamilton and the founding fathers because of the musical 'Hamilton' but I have to admit that when I was in the 7th grade, my Geography teacher hated Geography, so instead of teaching us anything about it, he taught us American History and focused on Revolutionary War for most of the school year...so, I have a huge passion for learning about this time period and the Founding Fathers in general.
This book was one of the best I've come around for many reasons; the paper that it's printed on and the font make it easy for me to read it and not get a headache, Brockenbrough includes a lot of details about people that we don't learn about often in history; I didn't know the name of Rachel Fawcett or that Hamilton had any siblings, I had no idea that there were more people working for Washington the same way that Hamilton was.
I loved that there were portraits and photos included, and a timeline in the back, and the epilogue was more historical facts about the time periods than the rest of the Hamilton family. This was one of the easiest books to digest about a historical figure, and I think it has more to do with it being aimed at a younger audience (I bought this from the YA section) but we don't need stuffy and boring biographies for them to be interesting we just need them to be written in modern word like this one was.
This book was one of the best I've come around for many reasons; the paper that it's printed on and the font make it easy for me to read it and not get a headache, Brockenbrough includes a lot of details about people that we don't learn about often in history; I didn't know the name of Rachel Fawcett or that Hamilton had any siblings, I had no idea that there were more people working for Washington the same way that Hamilton was.
I loved that there were portraits and photos included, and a timeline in the back, and the epilogue was more historical facts about the time periods than the rest of the Hamilton family. This was one of the easiest books to digest about a historical figure, and I think it has more to do with it being aimed at a younger audience (I bought this from the YA section) but we don't need stuffy and boring biographies for them to be interesting we just need them to be written in modern word like this one was.
annebennett1957's review against another edition
5.0
Enlightening and interesting. Excellent epilogue which includes all kinds of related topics. A bibliography and end notes make this a useful tool for researching students. My only "beef" with the book is that the plentiful illustrations do not offer artist attributions, with one or two exceptions.
zoerose02's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Miscarriage