Young Hamilton by James T. Flexner (PDF)

Description

Written as a character study, Young Hamilton, explores the first twenty-six years of Alexander Hamilton’s life and is designed to reveal how Hamilton’s early years shaped him into the statesman he became.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Flexner’s great achievement is that he has written a life that even the most rabid Jeffersonian can applaud. Admiring and critical at the same time, Flexner scrutinizes his subject’s early years to arrive at a daring but convincing portrait. . . . Each generation requires its own biographies of history’s major figures, but for the time being it is hard to see how Flexner’s Hamilton could be improved.” ― ―Newsweek”Every welcome to a volume which is fully up to the standard of literary elegance, psychological penetration, and historical scholarship that Mr. Flexner’s massive life of George Washington has led everyone to expect.” ― ―The Economist“This is an admirable book, thoroughly researched, and nicely written. . . . Highly recommended for general collections.” ― ―Library Journal Review “Flexner’s great achievement is that he has written a life that even the most rabid Jeffersonian can applaud. Admiring and critical at the same time, Flexner scrutinizes his subject’s early years to arrive at a daring but convincing portrait. . . . Each generation requires its own biographies of history’s major figures, but for the time being it is hard to see how Flexner’s Hamilton could be improved.” ― ―Newsweek”Every welcome to a volume which is fully up to the standard of literary elegance, psychological penetration, and historical scholarship that Mr. Flexner’s massive life of George Washington has led everyone to expect.” ― ―The Economist“This is an admirable book, thoroughly researched, and nicely written. . . . Highly recommended for general collections.” ― ―Library Journal About the Author James Thomas Flexner is a National Book Award Laureate; recipient of a special Pulitzer Prize Citation; winner of the Society of American Historians’ Parkman Prize, the gold medal of the American Academy of Arts and Letters for “Eminence in Biography.” James Thomas Flexner has won a Special Pulitzer Prize Citation, a National Book Award, and a Christopher’s Award for his four-volume biography, Washignton: An Indispensable Man. A foremost man of letters, Flexner has written with equal distinction in the fields of American history, biography and art. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Everyone should find a copy of this and read it cover to cover at least 5 or 10 times. There’s so much about our own time, our culture, which can be compared to this person’s history.

⭐An interesting read— how could it not be, given the extraordinary circumstances of Hamilton’s life? The story follows Hamilton from his horrifying childhood among dysfunctional family members on West Indian islands up through his service in the Revolutionary War, and it ends with a brief summary of his post-war life and career and his premature, tragic death in a duel with Aaron Burr.On one hand, Flexner shows Hamilton as a case in point of a person who was able— with help from several mentors— to overcome what might seem like insurmountable odds to become one of this country’s Founding Fathers. But the author also shows how Hamilton’s traumatic early life extended its baleful influence over his subsequent years, no matter how hard he tried to escape. Hamilton was a genius— no doubt about that— but his abrasive, explosive, often cynical personality ensured he’d make enemies determined to thwart him. He was also often his own worst enemy.Incredibly enough, he was still a teenager— only 19 years old— when he became an aide-de-camp to George Washington, and his brilliance quickly earned him a place as the General’s indispensable man. It was Washington’s efforts to hold onto Hamilton that eventually precipitated a break between the two. Hamilton perfectly fit Wilfred Owens’ description of a young man “avid for some desperate glory,” determined to participate heroically in military action, while Washington, just as determinedly, tried to hold onto him as his most valuable aide.Even after Hamilton coldly broke off relations with the astonished Washington, following what he was determined to interpret as a slight by the General, he continued to bombard his superior with letters of advice(!) and what amounted to demands for preferment and advancement. After a while Washington, the most conscientious of correspondents, stopped answering Hamilton’s letters, and apparently destroyed some of them— a VERY rare act for that compulsive saver of papers. (I have a distinct mental image of Washington on his way to the privy with one of Hamilton’s letters clutched in his fist and emerging several minutes later, empty-handed.)Perhaps due to his early years in the licentious social world of the West Indies, Hamilton had the sexual morals of an alley cat. John Adams (possibly envious of Hamilton’s promiscuity) once observed that there weren’t enough whores in the world sufficient to “draw off his super-abundant secretions.” One of Hamilton’s extra-marital affairs provided the first major sex scandal of our new country.All in all, this is an excellent, well-written biography of a brilliant but tragically flawed man.

⭐James Thomas Flexner’s “The Young Hamilton” unique perspective is that it devotes 46 of its 47 chapters to its subject’s life from birth in 1757 to 1783 which excludes his days in the Constitutional Convention, as Secretary of the Treasury in the Washington administration and his regime unsettling rivalry with Thomas Jefferson. Even this relatively short career had accomplishments enough for a long life. During this time Hamilton lived in the West Indies as the child of a broken relationship (his parents were never able to marry) and the orphaned son of a mother who died young, commenced a mercantile career, moved to the mainland and pursued an education. Arriving in New York just as the revolutionary spirits were rising he became progressively involved in protests and military units. While serving in an artillery unit he attracted the attention of General Washington at whose behest he joined his staff. The responsibilities Washington assigned to Hamilton to compose orders and other communications evidence the respect that his personality and work commanded. This tome covers several crucial events during the Revolutionary War including the capture of Maj. Andre and the betrayal of Benedict Arnold, the message to Congress to evacuate Philadelphia, and the Battle of Yorktown.In the bibliography of many this work has been superseded by more modern texts. I find that the understanding of an historical figure is enhanced by reading biographies written at different times. I think that besides presenting a 1970s view of Hamilton “The Young Hamilton” forces the reader to pay attention to the incredible rise that prepared its subject for the challenges he would face when championing the writing and adoption of the Constitution and the organization of the government that it created. I recommend more modern biographies for an introduction to Alexander Hamilton and Flexner’s volume for a deeper understanding of this remarkable life.

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