Like most everyone in the country, I was infected with Hamilton fever. Since the musical only covers so much, I thought I'd check out the biography that inspired Lin-Manuel's work of genius. Well, turns out the three-hour (plus) musical only scratches the surface of Alexander Hamilton's extraordinary life. The biography is dense-- I've been reading it diligently since 4th of July (no, the irony isn't lost on me), and I just finished this past weekend. Chernow is also a masterful storyteller and I found myself using the "look up" and "define" feature in iBooks more times than I'd like to admit (it was a lot, okay?)
While the biography was very enjoyable and I learned a lot -- I did find myself endlessly comparing between the book and the musical (for example, Burr is such a scoundrel, you guys! And Hamilton wasn't really Washington's right-hand man). Is it worth the read? Well, it does cover an amazing part of our history and the dirty politics are especially poignant considering today's current climate (during Hamilton and Jefferson's tumultuous years, I found myself cursing at them for creating a 2-party system). But, to be honest, I wished I was listening to the soundtrack half the time. Sure, it may not be 100% accurate, but it's just so good.
Final Word: If the soundtrack isn't giving you your fill of everything Alexander Hamilton, it's worth checking out. The world is wide enough for both.