I just started perusing Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton the Revolution,” and am blown away by the thought, precision and dedication he put into piecing together a rather unknown albeit historic figure. The musical will move you through a range of emotions, but the book (and its painstakingly witty footnotes) will take you on a creative journey of beautiful prose and rhetoric.
In Act I, James Madison depicts Hamilton as one who:
“Put a pencil to his temple, connected it to his brain,
And he wrote his first refrain, a testament to his pain.”
Hamilton was hotheaded, passionate, fierce and revolutionary. Yet it all began with a traumatic and lonely upbringing, which ignited a talent for writing that he utilized to move a nation toward independence. Lin-Manuel brings Hamilton’s story to justice as he infuses his narratives with rap and soulful beats.
