ALEXANDER HAMILTON, American

Alexander Hamilton is one of the least understood, most important, and most impassioned and inspiring of the founding fathers. At last Hamilton has found a modern biographer who can bring him to full-blooded life; Richard Brookhiser. In these pages, Alexander Hamilton sheds his skewed image as the "bastard brat of a Scotch peddler," sex scandal survivor, and notoriously doomed dueling partner of Aaron Burr. Examined up close, throughout his meteoric and ever-fascinating (if tragically brief) life, Hamilton can at last be seen as one of the most crucial of the founders. Here, thanks to Brookhiser's accustomed wit and grace, this quintessential American lives again.

Richard Brookhiser is the author of Founding Father: Rediscovering George Washington and The Way of the WASP. He has also edited and annotated Washington's Rules of Civility. He is a Senior Editor at National Review and a New York Observer columnist. He lives in New York City.