Hamilton in Words and Music

Who was the man?

"Few figures in American history have aroused such visceral love or loathing as Alexander Hamilton....the one founding father who ha[s] not received his due from posterity....Hamilton's crowded years as treasury secretary scarcely exhaust the epic story of his short life, which was stuffed with high drama. From his illegitimate birth in Nevis to his bloody downfall at Weehawken,...he embodied an enduring archetype: the obscure immigrant who comes to America, re-creates himself, and succeeds despite a lack of proper birth and breeding."

-Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, pg. 3-4

Who wrote the book?

"This book is one of those happy rarities: a popular biography that should also delight scholars....This is the kind of synthetic narrative history and biography that is rarely done to such high standards and is clearly one of the best introductions to the American formative era available. Moreover, the way Chernow integrates international affairs, domestic politics, economic and constitutional theory, and astute psychological analysis is nothing short of wondrous."

Stephen B. Presser (Northwestern University), Journal of American History

Who wrote the musical?

"This is the story of America then, told by American now."

-Lin-Manual Miranda

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/28/opinion/lin-manuel-miranda-give-puerto-rico-its-chance-to-thrive.html?_r=0

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/07/opinion/stop-the-bots-from-killing-broadway.html?_r=0

Hamilton to Laurens, April 1779:

"Cold in my professions, warm in friendships, I wish, my dear Laurens, it m[ight] be in my power by action rather than words [to] convince you that I love you. I shall only tell you that till you bade us adieu, I hardly knew the value you had taught my heart to set upon you."

Hamilton and Aaron Burr meet: http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-aaron-burr-sir-lyrics

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-my-shot-lyrics

Recurring theme: not throwing away my shot

-Both orphans, though from different worlds.

-"Hamilton had a taste for courtroom theatrics. He had a melodious voice coupled with a hypnotic gaze, and he could work himself up into a towering passion that held listeners enthralled....Like Hamilton, the impeccaly tailored Burr made an elegant impression....he was witty, urbane, and unflappable and had a mesmerizing effect on men and women alike....Throughout his career, Hamilton was outspoken to a fault, while Burr was a man of ingrained secrecy." Alexander Hamilton, pg. 190 - 193

-Their rivalry began in legal practice: speaking first and summing up

"Though Hamilton appreciated that Burr could be

resourceful in court, he found something empty beneath the surface.

'It is certain that at the bar he is more remarkable for ingenuity and dexterity than for sound judgement and good logic....His arguments at the bar were concise. His address was pleasing, his manners were more - they were fascinating. When I analyzed his arguments, I could never discern in what his greatness consisted.' "

Alexander Hamilton, 193

The "dear brunettes" - "Eliza reflected Hamilton's earnest sense of purpose determination, and moral rectitude, while Angelica exhibited his wordly side - the wit, charm, and vivacity that so delighted people in social intercourse."

Alexander Hamilton, 133

Hamilton on Elizabeth:

"I venture to tell you in confidence that by some odd contrivance or other your sister has found out the secret of interesting me in everything that concerns her....She is most unmercifully handsome and so perverse that she has none of those pretty affectations which are the prerogitives of beauty. He good sense in destitute of that happy mixture of vanity and ostentation which would make it conspicuous to the whole tribe of fools and foplings....She has good nature, affability, and vivacity unembellished with that charming frivolousness....In short, she is so strange a creature that she possesses all the beauties, virtues, and graces of her sex without any of those amiable defects which...are esteemed by connoisseurs necessary shades in the character of a fine woman."

Hamilton to Angelica:

"I seldom write to a lady without fancying the relation of lover and mistress. It has a very inspiring effect. And in your case, the dullest materials could not help feeling that propensity."

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-helpless-lyrics

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-satisfied-lyrics

Recurring theme: Never going to be satisfied

"Plagued by foul weather and abysmal morale and with the British tailing his movements, George Washington led the bedraggled Continental Army across New Jersey. The losses he had sustained in New York strengthened his sense that he had to dodge large-scale confrontations that played to the enemy’s strength. […] Instead, he would opt for small-scale, improvisational skirmishes, the very sort of mobile, risk-averse war of attrition that Hamilton had expounded in his undergraduate article. […] “By hanging upon their rear and seizing every opportunity of skirmishing,” the situation of the British could “be rendered insupportably uneasy,” [Hamilton] wrote. The rugged terrain and dense forests of America would make it difficult for the British to wage conventional warfare."

Ron Chernow

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-stay-alive-lyrics

"Kail, the director, explained, “We needed to set up the duel between Hamilton and Burr—because you know Hamilton is going to die—so the groundwork of that, structurally, made a lot of sense to us. But having it be something so loved by hip-hop fans was also a way of saying that these folks from long ago were doing the same things that Biggie was talking about fifteen years ago.” Miranda nodded. “It’s a song about illegal activity, and how it works,” he said. “And we’re both stealing the structure from Moses.”

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-guns-and-ships-lyrics

6.3 words/second

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-what-comes-next-lyrics

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-history-has-its-eyes-on-you-lyrics

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-non-stop-lyrics

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-i-know-him-lyrics

Hamilton in Words and Music

The French Revolution

The Musical

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-cabinet-battle-2-lyrics

Genius: http://genius.com/albums/Lin-manuel-miranda/Hamilton-original-broadway-cast-recording

"Alexander Hamilton" May 12, 2009

Recurring theme: There's a million things I haven't done, but just you wait

The World will never be the same

"In the early periods of the French Revolution, a warm zeal for its success was in this Country a sentiment truly universal. The love of Liberty is here the ruling passion of the Citizens of the United States pervading every class animating every bosom. As long therefore as the Revolution of France bore the marks of being the cause of liberty it united all hearts and centered all opinions. But this unanimity of approbation has been for a considerable time decreasing. The excesses which have constantly multiplied, with greater and greater aggravations have successively though slowly detached reflecting men from their partiality for an object which has appeared less and less to merit their regard."

-Hamilton, 1794

The New Nation

Schuyler Sisters

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-whatd-i-miss-lyrics

Hamilton's financial plan:

-Assumption of States' Debts

-Federal debt and national credit

-Tariffs and excises

-Manufacturing

-National Bank

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-the-schuyler-sisters-lyrics

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-cabinet-battle-1-lyrics

Hamilton Origins

The Unraveling

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-the-room-where-it-happens-lyrics

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-we-know-lyrics

The Election of 1796

-Washington decides not to run again

-Two big concerns: neutrality and partisan politics

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-one-last-time-lyrics

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-the-reynolds-pamphlet-lyrics

-Eliza burns her correspondence

Hamilton on Washington:

"[He] consulted much, pondered much, resolved slowly, resolved surely."

on Adams:

"the disgusting egotism, the distempered jealousy, the ungovernable discretion"

as Phocion, demolishing the eight virtues of Jefferson:

"At one moment he is anxious to emancipate the blacks to vidicate the liberty of the human race. At another, he discovers that the blacks are of a different race and therefore, when emacipated, they must be instantly removed beyond the mixture lest he (or she) should stain the blood of his (or her) master, not recollecting what from his situation and other circumstances he ought to have recollected - that this mixture may take place while the negro remains in slavery. He must have seen all around him sufficient marks of this staining of blood to have been convinced that retaining them in slavery would not prevent it."

Hamilton: The Background

Hamilton and Burr

The Duel

http://www.studythepast.com/duel/all_duel_documents.pdf

http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-26-02-0001-0248

https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/hamilton/essays/understanding-burr-hamilton-duel

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-the-world-was-wide-enough-lyrics

The Election of 1800

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-the-election-of-1800-lyrics

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-who-lives-who-dies-who-tells-your-story-lyrics

"As to Burr, there is nothing in his favour. His private character is not defended by his most partial friends. He is bankrupt beyond redemption, except by the plunder of his country. His public principles have no other spring or aim than his own agrandizement....If he can, he will certainly disturb our insitutions to secure to himself permanent power and with it wealth. He is truly the Cataline of America."

Washington and the War

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-right-hand-man-lyrics

The End of Act 1

"This is actually very central to the show because Lin-Manuel Miranda asked me “Would Washington have seen Hamilton as a younger version of himself?” and I said, “Yes, their personalities were so unlike, but there was something about their situations that would have seemed familiar to Washington.”

-Ron Chernow

Dueling

King George

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-youll-be-back-lyrics

http://genius.com/Lin-manuel-miranda-ten-duel-commandments-lyrics

-Resolving issues with honor

-Not often shooting to kill