Alexander Hamilton

September 1, 2017

Born to a single mother on a culture-impoverished Caribbean island, yet with persuasive writing skills plus a dogged interest in learning, Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) went on to become a soldier in the Revolutionary War, a U.S. founding father, and the first secretary of the treasury. Hennessey's (The United States Constitution) script spotlights Hamilton's dilemmas, skimming only lightly over historical details outside the leader's personal and professional penumbra. Neither monkishly pure nor in agreement about the greater good, the nation's founding fathers persevered through schism, scandal, and slander. Much turmoil concerned whether the new republic should have a strong, elitist-run central government hewing to a Constitution (Hamilton's viewpoint) or a looser confederation with power given to states and the "common people." We're still struggling over that today, and it's fascinating to read how it all began. Greenwood's (The Fuse) real-ish color art takes on the pleasant quality of candlelight, spiked by sharper reds as tempers flair. VERDICT Unpacking the history behind the high-energy Broadway megahit Hamilton, this focused biography will get teen through adult readers to ask questions about the country's past and present. Find copious source notes at HamiltonGraphicNovel.com. [Previewed in Douglas Rednour's "Comics Cross Over," LJ 6/15/17, p. 40-46.--Ed.]--MC

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