{"id":1245,"date":"2017-09-18T22:33:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-18T22:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/?p=1245"},"modified":"2017-09-18T22:33:41","modified_gmt":"2017-09-18T22:33:41","slug":"book-review-alexander-hamilton-the-graphic-history-of-an-american-founding-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/?p=1245","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REVIEW: &#8220;Alexander Hamilton: The Graphic History of an American Founding Father&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<body><p><\/p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  wp-image-1248 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/9780399580000-600x857.jpg?resize=325%2C464\" alt=\"9780399580000-600x857\" width=\"325\" height=\"464\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/9780399580000-600x857.jpg?resize=600%2C857&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/9780399580000-600x857.jpg?resize=210%2C300&amp;ssl=1 210w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/9780399580000-600x857.jpg?resize=400%2C571&amp;ssl=1 400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/9780399580000-600x857.jpg?resize=430%2C614&amp;ssl=1 430w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/9780399580000-600x857.jpg?resize=150%2C214&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nickduffel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/9780399580000-600x857.jpg?resize=100%2C143&amp;ssl=1 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 325px) 100vw, 325px\" \/>The United States of America had a difficult birth.\u00a0 That seems to be the main message behind Jonathan Hennessey and Justin Greenwood\u2019s graphic novel <em>Alexander Hamilton: The Graphic History of an American Founding Father<\/em>.\u00a0 I typically avoid graphic novels with a historical, political, or biographical theme.\u00a0 Lately, however, I have found myself more drawn to these.\u00a0 <em>Alexander Hamilton<\/em> is all of these (historical, political, biographical) in one.\u00a0 My fear is that this excellent book would not be widely read or respected because it is a \u201ccomic book.\u201d\u00a0 That would be a shame, because this book sheds light on the primary tension that faced a young United States, and it is a tension that we should still be aware of today.\n<p>That tension is encapsulated in the question, \u201cHow powerful should the government of a nation be?\u201d\u00a0 Many of the Founding Fathers might qualify as anarchists by today\u2019s standards\u2014they had just gotten rid of the king\u2019s rule and \u201ctaxation without representation.\u201d The efforts of Federalists like Hamilton served to centralize government at a critical juncture in history, possibly saving the new nation from early extinction.\u00a0 George Washington trusted Hamilton, and history was made.\u00a0 However, Hamilton staked his reputation on his Federalist efforts, and he paid the price socially and fiscally.\u00a0 So this is the story of a man who gave it all for his nation.<\/p>\n<p>Hennessey doesn\u2019t sugarcoat or glorify the Founding Fathers.\u00a0 He lets them be human, showing all their improprieties and foibles.\u00a0 What does it mean for key pioneers of liberty such as Jefferson and Washington to own slaves?\u00a0 What about the man, Hamilton, who founded the national bank and led the nation out of debt, yet was fiscally irresponsible with his own money and died with enormous personal debt?\u00a0 Another key irony involves the \u201cnecessity\u201d of gentlemen to engage in the barbaric practice of dueling whenever their honor is at stake, leading to tragic, needless death.\u00a0 Hennessey allows these tensions to remain and doesn\u2019t fight against them\u2014he lets them be part of our history like they should be.\u00a0 Why do we feel the need to deify these imperfect men?\u00a0 Maybe the evidence of Providence that we seek is in the knowledge that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights emerged from the efforts of very imperfect men who often reviled, yet respected, one another.<\/p>\n<p>This is one of the graphic novels where the art takes a backseat to the writing.\u00a0 This is a shame because Greenwood\u2019s art is stylish and expressive.\u00a0 The art takes a backseat because Hennessey is fond of the lengthy discourse, which often overwhelms the page.\u00a0 His writing is superb, but practically renders this book an \u201cIllustrated Life of Alexander Hamilton\u201d rather than a graphic novel.\u00a0 This is likely because this book intends to make political commentary and not just be a narrative biography.\u00a0 I can appreciate that.\u00a0 And sometimes the art manages to engage the writing for ironic effect.\u00a0 For example, a wide shot of Jefferson\u2019s mansion depicts black slaves hard at work while Jefferson declares America to be an \u201cundiminished sanctuary of liberty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I highly recommend this book, even for those who don\u2019t typically read graphic novels.\u00a0 Hopefully books like this will continue to elevate the medium in the minds of readers, even if this particular example leans more toward the \u201cnovel\u201d than the \u201cgraphic.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Please Note: This book was gifted as a part of the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloggingforbooks.com\/\">Blogging for Books<\/a>\u00a0Reviewers Program in exchange for my unbiased review of this work. This has in no way influenced my opinion or review of this work.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United States of America had a difficult birth.\u00a0 That seems to be the main message behind Jonathan Hennessey and Justin Greenwood\u2019s graphic novel Alexander Hamilton: The Graphic History of an American Founding Father.\u00a0 I typically avoid graphic novels with a historical, political, or biographical theme.\u00a0 Lately, however, I have found myself more drawn to&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/?p=1245\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">BOOK REVIEW: &#8220;Alexander Hamilton: The Graphic History of an American Founding Father&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,4,12],"tags":[15,32,40,93,150,157],"class_list":["post-1245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging-for-books","category-books-2","category-reviews","tag-52-books","tag-books","tag-comics","tag-history","tag-reading","tag-reviews-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7EHHr-k5","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1245"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1250,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1245\/revisions\/1250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nickduffel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}