Alexander Hamilton

出版者:The Penguin Press

作者:Ron Chernow

页数:818

出版时间:2004-4-26

价格:USD 35.00

装帧:Hardcover

isbn号码:9781594200090

具体描述

From National Book Award winner Ron Chernow, a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation.

Ron Chernow, whom the New York Times called "as elegant an architect of monumental histories as we've seen in decades," now brings to startling life the man who was arguably the most important figure in American history, who never attained the presidency, but who had a far more lasting impact than many who did.

An illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, Hamilton rose with stunning speed to become George Washington's aide-de-camp, a member of the Constitutional Convention, coauthor of The Federalist Papers , leader of the Federalist party, and the country's first Treasury secretary. With masterful storytelling skills, Chernow presents the whole sweep of Hamilton's turbulent life: his exotic, brutal upbringing; his brilliant military, legal, and financial exploits; his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and Monroe; his illicit romances; and his famous death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July 1804.

For the first time, Chernow captures the personal life of this handsome, witty, and perennially controversial genius and explores his poignant relations with his wife Eliza, their eight children, and numberless friends. This engrossing narrative will dispel forever the stereotype of the Founding Fathers as wooden figures and show that, for all their greatness, they were fiery, passionate, often flawed human beings.

Alexander Hamilton was one of the seminal figures in our history. His richly dramatic saga, rendered in Chernow's vivid prose, is nothing less than a riveting account of America's founding, from the Revolutionary War to the rise of the first federal government.

作者简介

Ron Chernow was born in 1949 in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating with honors from Yale College and Cambridge University with degrees in English Literature, he began a prolific career as a freelance journalist. Between 1973 and 1982, Chernow published over sixty articles in national publications, including numerous cover stories. In the mid-80s Chernow went to work at the Twentieth Century Fund, a prestigious New York think tank, where he served as director of financial policy studies and received what he described as “a crash course in economics and financial history.”

Chernow’s journalistic talents combined with his experience studying financial policy culminated in the writing of his extraordinary first book, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance (1990). Winner of the 1990 National Book Award for Nonfiction, The House of Morgan traces the amazing history of four generations of the J.P. Morgan empire. The New York Times Book Review wrote, “As a portrait of finance, politics and the world of avarice and ambition on Wall Street, the book has the movement and tension of an epic novel. It is, quite simply, a tour de force.” Chernow continued his exploration of famous financial dynasties with his second book, The Warburgs (1994), the story of a remarkable Jewish family. The book traces Hamburg’s most influential banking family of the 18th century from their successful beginnings to when Hitler’s Third Reich forced them to give up their business, and ultimately to their regained prosperity in America on Wall Street.

Described by Time as “one of the great American biographies,” Chernow’s Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1998) brilliantly reveals the complexities of America’s first billionaire. Rockefeller was known as a Robber Baron, whose Standard Oil Company monopolized an entire industry before it was broken up by the famous Supreme Court anti-trust decision in 1911. At the same time, Rockefeller was one of the century’s greatest philanthropists donating enormous sums to universities and medical institutions. Chernow is the Secretary of PEN American Center, the country’s most prominent writers’ organization, and is currently at work on a biography of Alexander Hamilton. He lives in Brooklyn Heights, New York.

In addition to writing biographies, Chernow is a book reviewer, essayist, and radio commentator. His book reviews and op-ed articles appear frequently in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He comments regularly on business and finance for National Public Radio and for many shows on CNBC, CNN, and the Fox News Channel. In addition, he served as the principal expert on the A&E biography of J.P. Morgan and will be featured as the key Rockefeller expert on an upcoming CNBC documentary.

读后感

经过149天断断续续的阅读，终于结束了这本书。阅读过程不是愉快轻松的，从一开始作者对于汉密尔顿死亡的“剧透”开始，我的心总是悬着，一不小心就失去客观判断，替这样一位伟人着急、担忧或是由衷的高兴。 其实一直在好奇是什么造就了汉密尔顿，他可以称得上是一个传奇。并不...  

没有想到这本书网友评价如此之高。真是感觉又光荣又惭愧。 这本书是我2005年刚从LSE留学回来时候翻译的。那个时候我刚加入竞天公诚律师事务所几个月，正逢司法考试复习假期（我们律师事务所不成文的规矩），上海三联书店的编辑王笑红问我想不想翻译一下这本书。我当时正好复习...  

用户评价

我必须指出，这本书在资料的考据和引用的详实程度上，达到了令人敬佩的程度。它并非泛泛而谈，而是扎根于大量的原始文献之中，但最妙的是，作者并没有让这些“学术根基”成为阅读的负担。相反，这些坚实的背景支撑，让故事的每一部分都显得无比可信且掷地有声。尤其是在论述其经济思想和金融体系构建的部分，作者巧妙地采用了类比和简化，使得一个对于普通读者而言可能枯燥乏味的金融理论，变得清晰易懂，甚至引人入胜。它不是在“说教”，而是在“展示”一个天才如何一步步搭建起一个国家的经济骨架。这种平衡——既要满足专业研究者的严谨性，又要吸引对历史充满好奇的普通大众——是极其难以拿捏的，但这本书做到了。它让我意识到，许多我们今天习以为常的社会结构，其源头是多么的充满争议和天才般的构想。

这本书的语言风格乍一看有些古典，但细品之下，却充满了现代的洞察力。它不是那种干巴巴的历史陈述，而是充满了画面感和戏剧张力。作者擅长使用对比手法，将人物的非凡成就与其平凡的出身和早年的困苦境遇并置，营造出强烈的冲击效果。比如，在描绘其在法律领域的早慧和不懈努力时，那种文字的力度和精确性，仿佛能让你感受到他笔尖下每一个法律条文的重量。然而，最让我震撼的是作者对个人情感层面——尤其是与家人和政治对手之间的复杂关系——的处理。那些看似不经意的对话或信件往来中，蕴含着惊人的信息量，揭示了光环背后那个充满缺陷、同时也极具魅力的个体。阅读体验如同在迷宫中穿行，每转一个弯，都会发现新的视角或被先前未曾注意到的细节所吸引。它成功地将冰冷的史实，打磨成了有血有肉的故事，让人在合卷之时，仍能感受到人物的呼吸和心跳。

这本书的叙事节奏简直是教科书级别的！作者对于时间线的掌控炉火纯青，将一个复杂历史人物的一生，以一种既宏大又细腻的方式徐徐展开。我尤其欣赏它在描述那些关键的政治辩论和个人抉择时所展现出的深度。那种感觉就像是亲临现场，能感受到空气中弥漫的紧张与激情。书中对早期美国建国时期那种“摸着石头过河”的探索精神描绘得淋漓尽致，让人不禁反思，在没有先例可循的情况下，如何才能建立起一个稳固而具有前瞻性的国家体系。作者没有将笔墨仅仅停留在史实的罗列上，而是深入挖掘了人物的内心世界，比如面对背叛时的隐忍与挣扎，以及在权力巅峰时对自身局限性的清醒认识。这种对人性复杂性的捕捉，使得整部作品超越了一般的传记范畴，更像是一部关于野心、理想与牺牲的史诗。读完后，我对那个时代知识分子们所肩负的重担有了更深刻的理解，他们的每一次决策，都承载着对未来世代的责任。

阅读过程中，我最大的感受是时间仿佛被拉伸和压缩了。作者对某些历史节点，比如重要的决斗或是国会辩论的高潮，会进行细致入微的慢镜头式剖析，每一个动作、每一个眼神都充满了象征意义。而在处理那些漫长的、基础性的工作阶段，比如法律条文的起草和跨州协调时，作者则能以一种凝练而高效的笔触一笔带过，确保叙事的流畅性。这种节奏的驾驭，完全服务于主题的表达。它不是为了写而写，而是为了凸显“命运的必然性”和“历史的偶然性”在一个人身上交织的奇观。我特别喜欢作者在不直接评价人物道德高低的前提下，通过叙述事实本身所带来的道德审判效果，那份力量是任何主观评论都无法比拟的。读到最后，与其说是在阅读一个人的生平，不如说是在见证一个时代的诞生与痛苦。

这本书最成功之处，在于它成功地将一个“历史符号”还原成了一个有挣扎、有弱点、有巨大抱负的鲜活个体。那些关于其争议性行为的讨论，并未被回避，而是被置于当时特定的政治生态环境中进行审视。这提供了一种非常成熟的视角，即理解人物的复杂性，而非简单地进行“好人”或“坏人”的标签化处理。作者在描述其人生高光时刻的荣耀时，并未掩盖其背后的代价，那些付出的情感、失去的友谊、以及最终的悲剧收场，都被处理得克制而有力。这使得整本书的基调沉稳而厚重，读起来让人心潮澎湃，却又保持着一种清醒的距离感。它无疑是一部需要沉下心来细品的巨著，因为它所探讨的关于领导力、远见以及个人命运与国家前途的纠葛，至今仍有深刻的现实意义。

老天爷，可算是看完了，跟书比音乐剧只能算是“你所不知道的国父汉密尔顿桃色事件二三事.mp3”。不知道每个传记作者都会犯这种描述传记正主的时候不小心把对手（指 Adams 和 Jefferson）写的就很，emmmmm

差不多2年前上网瞎翻翻的时候看人推荐这本书，想看，生词太多，开始有重新把英语学起来的想法。今天终于看完了，激动。

差不多2年前上网瞎翻翻的时候看人推荐这本书，想看，生词太多，开始有重新把英语学起来的想法。今天终于看完了，激动。

这本书是我看的原版书里生词最多的一本，花了两个多月才看完，成就感还是蛮爆棚的，有时间的话想看第二遍。

听得我耳朵都出茧了，但是每天起床最期待的就是在车上听这本书。