Skip to main content

HamAlong: This book is great but also it can bite me

Because I skimmed this section, I will leave it to others to comment on the Maria Reynolds situation, as that is where we ended our reading for this week. If Chernow stays true to form, he'll be in Hamilton's corner and somehow speak of his being seduced by this "fatal enchantress," but maybe he was surprising and made it clear that everyone makes their own decisions and Hamilton has to be held accountable for being a cheating asshole. That's not all he was. But it was part of it.


While this book can be occasionally frustrating while overall surprisingly readable, I wanted to take a second and talk about the unexpected benefit of this being a crash course in American history that goes to a depth none of my classes ever reached. I feel as if I'm learning about my country for the first time, and I have found myself shocked and embarrassed at what I realized I did not know about our founding, and the documents that brought us into being.

The fact that Hamilton was there for essentially every pivotal moment in the United States's nascence means this is a survey of early American history, and I am extremely grateful for this information, as it makes me feel like more of a responsible citizen.

My only other comment on this section is Chernow and his obvious preferences for certain people over others. Jefferson and Adams both seem to be garbage in his eyes. I'm hugely fine with this in one respect, and not at all in another. I'd be angrier, but he seems to have anticipated such a reaction and has a blurb from acclaimed Adams biographer David McCullough on the back of his book. But he does seem to have a strange bias against him, which I suspect will only show itself more as Adams get older and more pugilistic.

A grumpier John Adams

Jefferson though. What an asshole.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Minithon: The Mini Readathon, January 11th, 2020

The minithon is upon us once more! Minithons are for the lazy. Minithons are for the uncommitted. Minithons are for us. The minithon lasts 6 hours (10 AM to 4 PM CST), therefore making it a mini readathon, as opposed to the lovely Dewey's 24 Hour Readathon and 24in48, both of which you should participate in, but both of which are a longer commitment than this, the Busy Watching Netflix person's readathon. By 'read for six hours' what's really meant in the minithon is "read a little bit and eat a lot of snacks and post pictures of your books and your snacks, but mostly your snacks." We like to keep it a mini theme here, which mainly means justifying your books and your snacks to fit that theme. Does your book have children in it? Mini people! Does it have a dog! Mini wolf! Does it have pencils? Mini versions of graphite mines! or however you get graphite, I don't really know. I just picture toiling miners. The point is, justify it or don't

Harry Potter 2013 Readalong Signup Post of Amazingness and Jollity

Okay, people. Here it is. Where you sign up to read the entire Harry Potter series (or to reminisce fondly), starting January 2013, assuming we all survive the Mayan apocalypse. I don't think I'm even going to get to Tina and Bette's reunion on The L Word until after Christmas, so here's hopin'. You guys know how this works. Sign up if you want to. If you're new to the blog, know that we are mostly not going to take this seriously. And when we do take it seriously, it's going to be all Monty Python quotes when we disagree on something like the other person's opinion on Draco Malfoy. So be prepared for your parents being likened to hamsters. If you want to write lengthy, heartfelt essays, that is SWELL. But this is maybe not the readalong for you. It's gonna be more posts with this sort of thing: We're starting Sorceror's/Philosopher's Stone January 4th. Posts will be on Fridays. The first post will be some sort of hilar

How to Build a Girl Introductory Post, which is full of wonderful things you probably want to read

Acclaimed (in England mostly) lady Caitlin Moran has a novel coming out. A NOVEL. Where before she has primarily stuck to essays. Curious as we obviously were about this, I and a group of bloggers are having a READALONG of said novel, probably rife with spoilers (maybe they don't really matter for this book, though, so you should totally still read my posts). This is all hosted/cared for/lovingly nursed to health by Emily at As the Crowe Flies (and Reads) because she has a lovely fancy job at an actual bookshop ( Odyssey Books , where you can in fact pre-order this book and then feel delightful about yourself for helping an independent store). Emily and I have negotiated the wonders of Sri Lankan cuisine and wandered the Javits Center together. Would that I could drink with her more often than I have. I feel like we could get to this point, Emily INTRODUCTION-wise (I might've tipped back a little something this evening, thus the constant asides), I am Alice. I enjoy