Alexander Hamilton
Subtitle: a life
By: Willard Sterne Randall.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2003
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 476
ISBN-13: 9780060195496
Subjects: Hamilton, Alexander, 1757-1804.; Statesmen -- United States -- Biography.; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1809.
Genres: Biography.
Description: An account of one of the most ingenious and complex founders of the United States traces his life, from his birth on the Caribbean Island of Nevis to his untimely demise in Weehawken, New Jersey in 1804.

In the first full, one-volume biography of Alexander Hamilton in more than two decades, award-winning historian Willard Sterne Randall takes a fresh look at one of the most brilliant, conflicted, and elusive of our nation's founders. Orphaned at thirteen and apprenticed in a counting house, the precocious Hamilton learned principles of business that helped him, as the first U.S. secretary of the treasury, to create the American banking system and invent the modern corporation. But first the staunch, intrepid Hamilton served in the American Revolution, primarily as aide-de-camp to General Washington, acting as Washington's spymaster. Forging a successful legal career, Hamilton coauthored The Federalist Papers and plunged into politics. Irresistibly attractive to women, he was a man of many gifts, but he could be arrogant and was at times a poor judge of character. In this meticulously researched, illuminating, and lively account, Willard Sterne Randall mines the latest scholarship to provide a new perspective on Alexander Hamilton, his illegitimate birth, little-known military activities, political and diplomatic intrigues, and sometimes scandalous private life. From his less than auspicious start in 1755 on the Caribbean island of Nevis to his untimely death in a duel with his old enemy Aaron Burr in 1804, Alexander Hamilton, despite his short and tragic life, left a huge legacy. - Jacket flap.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [443]-452) and index.
Table of contents: title: "The Wish of My Heart"; title: "A Short Time to Live"; title: "Twice Guilty of Adultery"; title: "I Wish There Was a War"; title: "A Wandering Guest in Worlds Unknown"; title: "Americans Are Entitled to Freedom"; title: "Men Go to Those Who Pay Them"; title: "We Shall Beat Them Soundly"; title: "A System of Infidelity"; title: "Treason of the Blackest Dye"; title: "Then We Must Part"; title: "The Art of Fleecing Neighbors"; title: "Acquisition of Power and Profit"; title: "What May This Lead To?"; title: "The Compass of National Authority"; title: "A Host unto Himself"