Hamilton

Hamilton – by Ron Chernow

All the hype that you have heard about this book is true. It is an outstanding biography. I admit I was somewhat skeptical. When I saw how much this book was dominating every single best-seller list, I figured the reason might be because of the highly successful musical (which I have not seen, nor plan to see). After completing the book, I can’t help but feel the reverse is true – someone, somewhere found a great biography about a great man, and then decided to make it into a musical.

I read an awful lot of biographies. My tendency is to favor Americans in the years around the time The United States came into existence.  With rare exceptions, I would have to say that I thoroughly enjoy all of them. So why should this one be any different? Is it really that different than all of the other biographies out there? I even recently read a biography about George Washington (who was close to Alexander Hamilton) by the same author (Ron Chernow), and even that one wasn’t particularly sensational.  For whatever reason, though, this one is truly exceptional.

Like all well researched biographies that are about 800 pages in length, this one is very thorough. It doesn’t exclusively focus on one aspect of his career, nor heavily focus on any particular area of his life. Everything is included.  From being orphaned in the Caribbean at a young age to being killed by the Vice-President of the United States in a duel. Everything is here.

Although there’s a lot of material to cover, Chernow works magic when transcribing the man’s life.  I rarely ever got bored. The book seemed exciting, as though someone were telling me a fascinating story as opposed to simply recounting a famous person’s life. Quite often when writing such a detailed exposition, ennui often creeps in from time to time.  An everyday life of a politician doesn’t necessarily relate to captivating reading.  Fortunately in this case, instances of boredom are rare.  There was one time when I mentally dozed off for a few pages while the author explained in a tad too much detail how Hamilton’s central bank worked, but these instances were quite infrequent.  I felt like I intimately knew so many of the many people who interacted, good and bad, with Alexander Hamilton. I truly wished that I could have travelled back in time to meet all of these fascinating people.

There are a lot of people that didn’t like this man, nor did he care for them.  Particularly interesting is how the author treats Thomas Jefferson. Had this been the only book you had ever read, you would come away with the notion that Jefferson was Satan incarnate.  Equally unfavorable treatment goes to John Adams, James Madison and James Monroe (all early U.S. Presidents, coincidentally). I would recommend further reading on these individuals for a more balanced perspective.  In fact, had it not been for George Washington, you could argue that there wasn’t anyone around at the time of any importance that thought highly of Hamilton. Of course, having George Washington on your side counteracts a lot of adversaries. 

The author is quite biased in favor of his subject matter. Oh sure, he points out many mistakes and deficiencies of Hamilton, but you end up firmly in the man’s corner, despite the squabbling with so many of the other founding fathers.  The biggest source of discontent is Hamilton’s Federalism as opposed to Jefferson’s Republicanism.  The birth of our two-political party system.  Both ideologies have highlights. To truly understand the significance, one must truly imagine life directly after America’s independence is won.  Now that we’ve won, what do we do?  We still need a centralized government to rule. Right?  At the time, many didn’t think so. Such questions are easy to answer in hindsight. Hindsight does tell us, that Hamilton was right about a lot of things during our country’s infancy.

I implore you to read this if you’re a fan of history. If you’re not a fan of history, I implore you to read it as well – just make sure you consult other sources so you come away with a strong, balanced perspective.

Huey Long

Huey Long – by T. Harry Williams

I grew up in Louisiana. I took Louisiana State History in 8^th grade.  My teacher was a devout admirer of Huey Long. We spent two weeks of the year focused exclusively on the man and his life. When my teacher described Long’s assassination, he almost broke out in tears.  This was back in 1981.  My teacher used this book as his main reference for his subject matter.

36 years later, I finally read the book. A truly great book, but I can’t honestly say I admire its subject matter. Yes, Huey did some great things, and in Louisiana, his memory is revered in holiness among most, but after reading this 900-page account, it left me feeling the man was flat out dangerous.

Huey Long was probably the closest thing to a dictator that the United States has ever known. The thing that made him so endearing to so many was that he used his powers, at least on the surface, for good. He was always championing for the poor and always fighting big businesses. He made it his mission as a young Governor of Louisiana that all children would receive free textbooks so they could learn. Unlike some who use championing for the poor as a mask for darker desires, Huey Long truly did seem to care.

As soon as he became a public figure, he figured out the game of politics and mastered it better than anyone. Early on it was clear to see that if you were against this man, he knew just what to do to ruin you. There are some that will argue that nothing has changed 80 years later. There are some that might say that things have changed, but they were very commonplace back in the 1930s, so his methods don’t get near the scrutiny as they would had he been around campaigning today.  This man would be very dangerous had he had a YouTube channel or a Twitter account.

So we read about his escapades, first, as Governor of Louisiana. Other than an impeachment (which he’s found innocent), things don’t get quite out of hand yet.  Then he runs for U.S. Senator. He’s then elected as a U.S. Senator. The problem is, he’s still Governor of Louisiana.  He still wants to be Governor of Louisiana. What to do?  Well, basically he still acts as Governor of the State while having a puppet leader act in his place. It’s quite scary to realize that Louisiana is basically under Martial Law, so to speak, at this time.

The man is obsessed with power. We rarely read anything about his family.  He simply didn’t have time for family.  There were too many back room deals to be made.  Things don’t change as a U.S. Senator. He promptly “takes over” the Senate, and uses the same unscrupulous methods to achieve his results and quickly puts the fear of God (or Long) into his senatorial counterparts.  He also ends up hating Franklin Roosevelt. Why?  Long states that the Commander in Chief isn’t progressive enough.  Careful scrutiny tells us that the real reason is that Huey wants his job come 1936.  Huey even begins writing a book about his presidency a few years before 1936.  I couldn’t help think of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

About the only thing Huey loves more than politics is LSU football. His wild antics definitely stir the faithful, and perhaps this is one of the reasons why he was so loved by the common man.  A man who is so passionate about the local football team can’t be all that bad. Right?  Well, he basically invites himself onto the sidelines during the games, and is always metaphorically pushing the team’s coach out of the way so he can be the coach.  Obviously, this gets on the coaches’ nerves.  A half-time speech should be made by the coach, not the U.S. Senator representing the state.  He even tries to run the University’s marching band – supposedly penning some of the music.

Side note: Although this isn’t mentioned in the book, I’ve heard stories that Huey wanted a new stadium at LSU so bad, that he took the funds intended for the men’s dormitories.  When the university explained to him that this was out of the question, Huey simply decided to build a stadium that would ALSO serve as a dormitory.  I don’t know if this is true or not, but as an alumnus of the university, I do know firsthand that the stadium did also house students.  Bizarre.

We know Huey was eventually gunned down by an assassin’s bullet before he ever officially announced his candidacy for U.S. President.  While I would never wish such a thing to happen to anybody, I have to honestly say that the thought of having this man as President sends chills down my spine.  I see many parallels of Long’s life to LBJs, and we know how maligned Johnson’s presidency turned out to be.  The fact that Long could have been president during World War II makes me twice as queasy.

A fascinating book, but I came away with the notion that I simply didn’t like the man.  Sure, he did great things, but his methods were too harsh.  Sorry, Louisiana. As a former resident, I have to go against the tide and say that I’m not an admirer of the Kingfish.