Book #1: Alexander Hamilton

My friend and fellow YCW board member Alex brought to my (and others) attention the paltry reading habits of American adults. Honestly, though, I didn't know people read as much as they supposedly do. I think they lied on the survey. It's like when you go to the eye doctor and you tell them you don't sleep in your contacts.

This is, of course, all coming from an insufferable, elitist prig, who read about thirty books last year (that'd be me). Whatever. I bet most of you reading this read more than I did.

Anyhow.

Book #1: Reading Challenge 2008

Ron Chernow's (creatively named) Alexander Hamilton. Before I read this, I thought of Hamilton as that slightly snobbish guy who wrote the Federalist papers and died in a duel with Aaron Burr. The reality is (as always) much more complex. For starters, though he's often labeled an aristocrat due to his association with the newly forming Federalist party, Hamilton was largely a self-made man, born in the West Indies as an illegitimate orphan. He eventually came to the US for college and then found himself as Washington's chief of staff during the Revolution. He was incredibly productive, prolific, and responsible throughout most of his life (that affair with a married woman was the exception, not the rule). He's probably the most influential American politician who was never president (besides perhaps Ben Franklin). He was highly instrumental in the Constitution being ratified, our national banking system, executive power/privelege, etc.

The book is completely and totally massive (whenever a new person was introduced, Chern0w apparently felt obliged to give them a little mini-biography, which added to the book's 731 page length), but if you like biographies, it's a pretty good one.