Hamilton as saint, Jefferson as villain
Based on the fine writing and exhaustive research that went into his book Washington: A Life, I would consider anything Ron Chernow writes on the Revolutionary War and the early American republic to be worth reading. Like his Washington book, Chernow’s 2004 biography of Alexander Hamilton is a very detailed, comprehensive, thoroughly researched cradle-to-grave life history of one of America’s heroic Founders. The Washington book, however, takes a very balanced look at the first president, showing both his exceptional qualities and his faults. Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton, on the other hand, clearly has an agenda to push. History has unfairly bestowed a bad reputation on Hamilton, and Chernow goes to great lengths to debunk negative and distorted myths. He takes it too far, however, resulting in a book that reads like an argument nominating Hamilton for sainthood.
What Chernow does very well is enumerate Hamilton’s numerous positive contributions to America’s government and economic system. There’s no denying that Hamilton was instrumental to the formation of our nation, and Chernow justly restores his valuable accomplishments to the public memory. Every time Hamilton pulls something shady, however, Chernow writes it off as a momentary “hypocritical lapse” in Hamilton’s otherwise impeccable judgment. By today’s standards, Hamilton was a far-right conservative. He really wanted a monarchy, even if he phrased it as an “elective monarchy,” and frequently showed inclinations toward militaristic and authoritarian rule. He supported John Adams’s Sedition Acts, under which anyone criticizing the government could be prosecuted for treason. Although Hamilton himself was an immigrant, he was against immigration. He may have been the architect of American industrial capitalism, but his policies favored the rich, alienated the South, and he even advocated for child labor. Today’s income equality and Wall Street bailouts would have been right at home in Hamilton’s utopia. Chernow, however, continually presents his subject as the personification of virtue.
The villain in this story is Thomas Jefferson, of whom Chernow has nothing good to say. What Chernow fails to admit is that America needed both Hamilton and Jefferson to become a great nation. If Hamilton had his way, presidents would rule for life, the executive branch would have been far too powerful to be curtailed by checks and balances, there would be no separation between church and state, and any dissent on the part of the citizenry would be punished with military might. Of course, despite Jefferson’s contributions to American government, he did own slaves, and Hamilton did not, so Chernow can always use that to negate Jefferson’s accomplishments entirely. Even Jefferson’s atheism and interest in science are treated as insults. John Adams may come off even worse than Jefferson. Chernow’s depiction of him as power hungry, emotionally volatile, and administratively inept bears a surprising resemblance to Donald Trump.
Chernow gives extensive coverage to the deadly duel between Hamilton and Aaron Burr, and really provides the reader with a thorough understanding of its causes and effects. Like Jefferson, Burr is a villain in this story, but more deservedly so. Chernow, however, considers Burr’s triumph in the duel to be cold-blooded murder, which feels like a stretch, given the circumstances.
I have to admit I learned a lot about American history from this book. Chernow does provide a wealth of information, even though I didn’t always care for the way he spins it. This is certainly worth a read for anyone interested in the founding of the American republic, but it will appeal more to conservatives than to liberals.
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The man behind the myths
Washington: A Life, a biography of George Washington by Ron Chernow, was published in 2010. It won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. Washington is a legendary figure whose life encompassed enough adventures, accomplishments, and anecdotes to fill a whole shelf full of books. To cram this man’s life into one volume is an ambitious and challenging undertaking, but Chernow pulls it off in excellent fashion. In 67 chapters, he follows the arc of Washington’s fascinating life—his youth on a Virginia plantation, his forays into the western wilderness as a surveyor, his military exploits in the French and Indian Wars, his home life as a planter at Mount Vernon, his leadership of the Continental Army in the American Revolution, his participation in the Constitutional Convention, his two terms as President of the United States, and his retirement as a living legend.
The book is not merely a laundry list of Washington’s achievements, however. The popular image of Washington that pervades American culture is that of a stone-faced statue who could do no wrong. Chernow cuts through the myths and finally shows us Washington as a human being with imperfections, personality quirks, and insecurities. When I first started reading the book, phrases like “superhuman strength” made me worry that I was in for a typical adulation fest, but Chernow soon laid those fears to rest. Rest assured, the book contains a satisfying amount of hero worship where appropriate, but overall Chernow’s balanced approach gives a full, rich picture of the man behind the figurehead. He gives Washington credit where credit is due, but doesn’t let him off the hook when he acts unethically or in error. One area where Chernow is particularly thorough is on the subject of slavery. Washington often expressed a desire to abolish slavery, yet he himself was a slaveholder, and in some cases not a particularly lenient one. Chernow explains Washington’s conflicting attitudes toward slavery without making excuses for him.
This biography is full of surprises and really allows the reader to view Washington in a different light. Instead of the silent stoic, we see a charming man who loved to dance and flirt with the ladies. Though he owned an incredible amount of land, Washington was constantly cash-poor. While he was revered by the public as almost a god during his lifetime, his politics were mercilessly attacked by his rivals, led by Thomas Jefferson. The latter is part of a supporting cast of luminaries that are also covered in detail. Chernow not only paints an intricate portrait of Washington, he also provides a vivid, panoramic view into this fascinating period in American history.
Really the only criticism I could come up with against Chernow’s book is its length. At times reading it felt like a monumental undertaking, but I can honestly say that it never bored me. Chernow’s prose is perfect. He can take complex matters like Revolutionary troop movements and early-republic policy debates and render them totally clear and understandable to the general reader, yet he doesn’t dumb down the language or the ideas. He has the rare knack for summarizing without oversimplifying. This book is truly a remarkable work of research and synthesis. The sheer quantity of sources Chernow must have had to wade through to compile this biography is staggering. I’m neither a historian nor a Washington scholar, so I’m in no position to quibble with any of Chernow’s findings. From the perspective of a general reader who’s always been fascinated by the mysterious Father of Our Country, however, this one-volume, cradle-to-the-grave biography not only satisfied my curiosity but also far exceeded my expectations.
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