Alexander Hamilton

Alexander Hamilton was killed in a duel by a sitting-era rival, Aaron Burr, before reaching fifty, yet in that short life he worked as a soldier, statesman, politician, financier, writer, orator, and thinker. Broadus Mitchell, widely regarded as the leading scholar of Hamilton's life, traces the path of a man who rose from illegitimate birth in the West Indies to become a Founding Father and a designer of the new American nation.

The book follows Hamilton through the hardships of the Revolutionary War and through the bitter colonial disputes that shaped his early career. Mitchell's long study of Hamilton's papers and life gives the account a depth few other biographers can match.

Mitchell also examines Hamilton's political beliefs, offering a corrective to the common view of him as a haughty aristocrat. Placed firmly within the context of his times, the portrait presents Hamilton as a major national leader.