I haven't read much history this year. One of my goals at the beginning of the year was to read more philosophy and theology and while I've certainly accomplished this goal it seems like the Peter I robbed to pay the Paul of philosophy was history. Towards the end of this year in a belated attempt to rectify my neglect I started reading Shelby Foote's three-volume classic on the Civil War. I'll pick up Volume II at some point in 2017 but I took a break to read the biography of Alexander Hamilton that inspired the hit Broadway musical Hamilton. It is named, fittingly, Alexander Hamilton.
Seven hundred page biographies are an interesting genre. I've waded through a few in my life and while I've always ultimately felt it was worth it, I've also had times where I've woken up with drool coating the page I was reading before falling into a doze. Which is only to say that I commiserate with my students when they complain about reading being boring. It certainly can be at times, particularly when slogging through financial data from the eighteenth century. Which I never make them do, so on second thought, shut up, students. Reading is great!
One of the most enjoyable parts of reading this biography is all the resonances between Ron Chernow's book and Lin-Manuel Miranda's play. Miranda is an avid student of the work and even when he deviates from the source material, as all creative work must to do to one extent or another, the changes feel recognizable within the broader span of Hamilton's actual life and work.
Another enjoyable and commonplace aspect of historical reading is tracking the resonances between the era described and our own. And here there are many: the size and role of government, the role of immigrants in national prosperity, true democracy versus republicanism, states' rights versus federal prerogative, etc.
And then there is the figure of George Clinton, the seven-term governor of New York state, two time Vice President, and thorn in Hamilton's side (how's that for a resume?). See if this sounds familiar:
"If uncouth in appearance, he was a wily politician who clung tenaciously to power. . . Clinton represented what would become a staple of American political folklore: the local populist boss, not overly punctilious or savory yet embraced warmly by the masses as one of their own. As his biographer John Kaminski put it, 'George Clinton's friends considered him a man of the people; his enemies saw him as a demagogue.'"
Miranda is insistent in interviews that Hamilton's story is relevant for audiences today. I've not heard him mention this particular, but it is worth remembering that the figure cut by Trump is nothing new to the American political stage. George Clinton is but one example of a Trumpian precursor. And it is worth remembering, too, that Trump certainly will not be the last bombastic ass masquerading as a populist hero.
I don't stand much stead behind the old saw about those not knowing history being doomed to repeat it--if pressed to logical conclusions the only validity such a saying can have is in very abstract applications, i.e. people still go to war! crazy!!!--but it is worth reading and reminding ourselves that what we're seeing here is nothing new. Call it the Solomonic wisdom rather thanGeorge Clinton had his day but is now an historical footnote. Trump, prayerfully, will be the same.
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