We need to talk about Hamilton

angeliz2k

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There is a thread in the Movies, TV, etc., subforum, but I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread here about Hamilton as historical fiction. I'm sure we're all aware of the sensation that Hamilton has become. I personally was blown away by the musical after initially being skeptical.

So . . . why has Hamilton been so successful? What kind of strategies are being used to make the history accessible, and can we translate those to novel/novella/short story form? Does Hamilton stumble in any ways?

To be fair, there are a lot of tools available to the writer of a Broadway show that aren't available to a historical novelist. I can't use in a catchy tune. I can't cleverly drop in anachronistic phrases. But then, there are tools available to us that aren't available in a Broadway play: the reader's imagination, a setting that can move effortlessly through time and space because we don't have to stay on a stage, and more space to explore characters.

I think the reason Hamilton has had such an impact is that Lin-Manuel Miranda gets to the heart of these characters--all of them--and tells a story that most Americans are only glancingly familiar with. It takes them by surprise that this guy they heard of once or twice led an interesting life that has some familiar themes. I've heard again and again how surprised people are to be crying over Alexander Hamilton

Thoughts?
 

Sunflowerrei

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I saw the show in November, I've listened to the cast album obsessively ever since, and it even encouraged me to read Ron Chernow's biographies on Hamilton and Washington--and I love history, but I'm not much of a thick biography reader. It's absolutely made me think about early American history in a different way and I know the show has had on impact on fans wanting to learn more about not only Alexander Hamilton, but the times he lived in. I love that the musicals show us these men in all their messy glory. Yeah, Jefferson, Washington, and Hamilton and the others were geniuses, but they weren't perfect. They were flawed human beings and that makes them more interesting.

Plus, Lin-Manuel Miranda has made this history relevant to America today. There's a line in one of the songs that goes, "Immigrants, we get the job done." It got a huge applause and whooping cheer on the night I went.
 

angeliz2k

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Sunflowerrei, I think that's the best part of Hamilton: it's gotten so many people interested in history, and in a part of history that's been woefully under-represented. I hope people's eyes are opened to Hamilton and the Federal period and to American history (and history) in general. Hopefully, people of all walks will think to themselves that if such a great story was hiding in an unfamiliar bit of history, that there are more gems to be found. I hope it spurs them to look for more great stories in history.

And I've thought for a long time that the Federal period was really engaging and wasn't talked about enough. It's been on my list of eras to write in for ages, but Lin-Manuel beat me to the punch, lol.
 

Sunflowerrei

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Hopefully, people of all walks will think to themselves that if such a great story was hiding in an unfamiliar bit of history, that there are more gems to be found. I hope it spurs them to look for more great stories in history.

I hope so, too. Before seeing the show, I'd never heard of Elizabeth Hamilton or her sister Angelica Schuyler Church. I didn't know about the deal between Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison to get the debt plan through Congress by allowing the capital to be closer to Virginia. So I'm sure there are tons of other stories--real and imagined--to be told in the Federal era. I'm curious about Aaron Burr and if he really did try to get himself some Mexican territory and make himself an emperor now.
 

flapperphilosopher

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I think the main reason Hamilton succeeds as a work of historical fiction (as opposed to as a musical, which has different measures entirely) is that it really humanizes its historical characters. It draws out their feelings and motivations, not just the actions recounted in the history textbook. I've always been fascinated by the fact that people in the past were people just like us, who experienced feelings just like ours--from excitement to heartbreak to silliness. Evidence for these shared experiences isn't always easily accessible, and certainly rarely engaged with in the general, school teaching of history. Hamilton makes them accessible. Miranda uses forms of cultural presentation that we're used to engaging with (modern music, modern slang and references) to minimize the superficial aspects of social and cultural distance between us and them, allowing for a deep sense that these people living 200 years ago are people, just like the ones we interact with and are interested in and love today. Hamilton and Jefferson and Burr and all them are expressed not just as the guys who did z political thing, but the guys who had x kind of personalities and felt y and did z because of it. The musical focuses on the personal, and as social beings we're simply geared to be more emotionally drawn to the personal than the high-level. History is made personal and relatable, in a way that the general public isn't used to. Us history folks, yes, but the magic of Hamilton is that it's attracted far more than history folks. Hopefully at least a few of them will shift their conceptions of what history is and realize it IS about people and not facts, and dive further, whether fictionally or non.
 

snafu1056

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Everyone I know raves about the Gore Vidal book Burr. I haven't read it.

That is all. I have contributed nothing to this discussion.
 

Sunflowerrei

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I'm watching a Times Talk that Lin-Manuel Miranda is part of and someone from the audience asked him about how Hamilton is often portrayed in U.S. History class as being a villain, that his policies only benefitted the wealthy, etc. To which Miranda replies, "Hamilton was a just a dude and he messed up. And Jefferson was a dude and he messed up." It's hard to teach the complexity of history to a bunch of bored high schoolers--or even to write it in a novel--but we really need more of it.
 

RobertMonarrez

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As for me, the character is just very cool. It's like Harry Potter. History and characters, well, the idea itself, of course. By the way, I recently wrote my philological work on this. If suddenly someone wants to discover more about this topic, then use the service https://writingpeak.co.uk/homework-help-online. Let's grow together
 
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