Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-231) index.
Contents:
Dueling Conceptions of History / Hamilton, Confessions of a Ten-Dollar Bill / David LaRocca Who's the Hero? / Joe Chapa -- Cyborgs in Revolutionary Manhattan / Maggie Jackson-- That's Edutainment! / Myron Jackson-- Self-made greatness. Megalomaniac of Megalopsychos? / Jason T. Eberl -- They Think Me Macbeth / Kate Bossert -- Smartest in the Room? / Cheryl Frazier -- Leaving your mark. Legacy or Happiness? / Carrie-Ann Biondi -- Right Way to Win Over Posterity / Thomas Wilk -- One Eye on the Future / Andy Wible Under eastern eyes. Dao of Hamilton / Aaron Rabinowitz -- Eliza Hamilton, Buddhist Master / Benjamin Ross -- The existential challenge. Redemptive Rapping / Jacqueline McMahon-Smith -- To Throw Away Your Shot or Not? / Minerva Ahumada -- Action against the Chaos / Adam Melinn -- The hideous blot. Daveed Diggs's Doubling / Marlene Clark -- Founding Fathers, Founding Slavers / Andrew T. Vink-- The excluded speak. Young, Scrappy, and Hungry / Tim Jung -- To the Revelation! / Alison Dobrick-- History's Icons / Katelyn Botsford Tucker -- Rewriting the past. History Has Its Eyes on You / Chad William Timm -- Casting in Living Color / Rachel Wall -- Dueling Conceptions of History / David LaRocca
Summary:
In Hamilton and Philosophy, professional thinkers expose, examine, and ponder the deep and controversial implications of this runaway hit Broadway musical. One cluster of questions relates to the matter of historical accuracy in relation to entertainment. To what extent is Hamilton genuine history, or is it more a reflection of America today than in the eighteenth century? What happens when history becomes dramatic art, and is some falsification of history unavoidable? One point of view is that the real Alexander Hamilton was an outsider, and any objective approach to Hamilton has to be that of an outsider. Politics always involves a debate over who is on the margins and who is allowed into the center. Then there is the question of emphasizing Hamilton's revolutionary aspect, when he was autocratic and not truly democratic. But this can be defended as presenting a contradictory personality in a unique historical moment. Hamilton's character is also one that blends ambition, thirst for fame, and concern for his immortal legacy, with inability to see his own limitations, yet combined with devotion to honor and the cultivation of virtue. Hamilton's evident ambition led him to be likened to Macbeth and Shakespearean tragedy can explain much of his life. Publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.