ALEXANDER HAMILTON: Portrait in Paradox

by John C. Miller ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 30, 1959

Monumental in scope, this vast and well-written volume is both a detailed personal and political biography of America's first Secretary of the Treasury and an outstanding history of this country's early perilous years and the men who played a part in them, Washington, Madison, Jefferson, Adams and many others. Of these men Hamilton, born in the West Indies in 1755, the illegitimate son of a Scots father and a French mother, may be the greatest. Small in stature alone, a brilliant orator, endowed with blazing financial ability and an astonishing naivete, Hamilton fought in the Revolution and was Washington's aide; a signer of the Constitution he used his talents to insure its adoption and as Secretary of the Treasury funded the national debt, forced reluctant states to agree to national taxation, levied tariffs and bounties, fostered manufacturing, and brought the country from the edge of bankruptcy to financial soundness. A man whose passion was fame and whose burning desire was to unite thirteen squabbling states into one nation, he achieved both aims, and so doing helped establish the power of the Supreme Court, became the bitter enemy of Jefferson, got himself involved in political and personal scandals, and in 1804 was killed in a duel with his long-time enemy the unscrupulous Aaron Burr, Jefferson's vice-president. Incredibly well-documented and highly readable, this book misses no small detail of Hamilton's career or political involvements; not designed for casual readers, its weight will exhaust all but dedicated historians. Hamiltonians and perhaps Jeffersonians should welcome it, and it is a must for all American historical collections.

Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1959

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1959

Categories: NONFICTION