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I watched the musical in January and I just finished the audiobook version of the Chernow biography of Hamilton (pro tip: listen at 2x speed to save 19 hours) a

I watched the musical in January and I just finished the audiobook version of the Chernow biography of Hamilton (pro tip: listen at 2x speed to save 19 hours) and I have to say the musical stuck VERY close to the biography. A few embellishments for dramatic effect but the substance is all spot on. Unless the biography is flawed, I'd say that ‘Hamilton’ and History are very much in sync. In case you want to learn more, I posted "Three Timeless Truths Entrepreneurs Can Learn from Alexander Hamilton" earlier today based on what I learned from the biography: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11475047 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11475047

RodericDay 11y ago
I'm wrapping up the bio, read, and I gotta say... Chernow's not my favorite biographer (comparing mostly to Ray Monk's bio of Wittgenstein here). On the one hand, the amount of raw material that surfaces is amazing, and I am delighted to have read tons of the Hamilton's own writing and that of his contemporaries. However, if anything the musical tones down the hero worship from his book, into something more palatable. When he calls Eliza going to the cottage "abandoning" him, and talks about his cheating in terms of him "being too much for her", or his rhapsodizing about him being right about the worthlessness of the French revolution vs. the American one, it starts wearing on you. edit: Still totally worth a read.