A really entertaining biography of one of the most instrumental founding fathers. Chernow explains Hamilton’s significance as a producer of ideas, but also brings the person to life with context and sympathy. There’s a lot of information about his childhood on Nevis (right—did you know Hamilton was born outside the 13 colonies? I sure didn’t) stretched to inform later developments of personality and ideology, but this sometimes heavy-handed psychiatric approach doesn’t take very much away from the complete story of his life.