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Eliza Hamilton: The Extraordinary Life and Times of the Wife of Alexander Hamilton
A strong pioneer woman, a loving sister, a caring mother, and in her later years, a generous philanthropist, Eliza Hamilton had many sides. This captivating account of the woman behind the famous man follows Eliza through her early years in New York, into the ups and downs of her married life with Alexander, beyond the aftermath of his tragic murder, and finally to her involvement in many projects that cemented her legacy as one of the unsung heroes of our nation’s early days.
618 pages, Library Binding
First published September 18, 2018
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9739 people want to read
About the author
Tilar J. Mazzeo
20 books321 followersTilar J. Mazzeo is a cultural historian, biographer, and passionate student of wine and food culture. She divides her time among the California wine country, New York City, and Maine, where she is a professor of English at Colby College.
(from the author's website)
(from the author's website)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 555 reviews
February 23, 2021
My goodness; what a captivating and entertaining read! ELIZA HAMILTON: THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE AND TIMES OF THE WIFE OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON, published September 18, 2018, was the first biography ever written about this stalwart early American figure. Tilar J Mazzeo picked a wonderful subject to research and present as an example of a strong woman in colonial America.
Eliza Schuyler was a witness to the birth of our country and knew many of those that had decision-making powers in its shaping. She was the wife of Alexander Hamilton, but Eliza could very well have been the wife of any number of influential men during this period and still left her mark in history.
A tomboy growing up, Eliza developed into a steadfast woman with a spine of steel. Her life was laser focused on her husband and family—they were her everything. All the while, she was the unwavering support for all in her circle.
From her cradle to her deathbed, Eliza’s life was spread upon the pages of her biography that was a result of the research of letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, etc. Eliza Hamilton’s life was a well-lived life and wonderfully recounted in this book. Never boring and always interesting, ELIZA HAMILTON was a delight to read.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and gave it a 5-star rating. An unknown bonus to me, at least a dozen color and black and white portraits were contained in the back of the ebook. Fantastic!!
Eliza Schuyler was a witness to the birth of our country and knew many of those that had decision-making powers in its shaping. She was the wife of Alexander Hamilton, but Eliza could very well have been the wife of any number of influential men during this period and still left her mark in history.
A tomboy growing up, Eliza developed into a steadfast woman with a spine of steel. Her life was laser focused on her husband and family—they were her everything. All the while, she was the unwavering support for all in her circle.
From her cradle to her deathbed, Eliza’s life was spread upon the pages of her biography that was a result of the research of letters, diaries, newspaper accounts, etc. Eliza Hamilton’s life was a well-lived life and wonderfully recounted in this book. Never boring and always interesting, ELIZA HAMILTON was a delight to read.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and gave it a 5-star rating. An unknown bonus to me, at least a dozen color and black and white portraits were contained in the back of the ebook. Fantastic!!
April 17, 2021
This would have been better had Ms Mazzeo focussed more on Eliza Hamilton, especially the last 55 years of her life. Instead, she chose to focus more on Eliza's family her first 36 years and thus diminishing many of her significant contributions to American history. Mrs. Hamilton's role as an ardent abolitionist and matriarch are opportunities missed. 6 of 10 stars
October 19, 2025
"Those words echoed for Hamilton, who lay very still until he heard the quiet breath of his child sleeping." There is no reference for this interjection of interior thoughts and invisible actions and motivations, because it is pure guesswork. The author does this often, beginning with the first line of the book. Lots of marginally relevant research cited in direct quotations from letters, but then even more pure conjecture that is not at all believable. I wish, if she had actually wanted to write a novelized version of Eliza Hamilton's life, she had not pretended to be writing history. I wish she had made up her mind either to tell what is known as fact or to make up a better story—instead of pretending she could do both at the same time.
And then the lines such as: "Aaron Burr was famously louche and horny." What about a sentence combining a high school senior's vocabulary word with slang? Humor? Not to mention "a hot bullet tore through Hamilton's abdomen, shattering his rib cage." Nothing actually wrong with either one, except that I found sentence structures like this gave me pause on almost every page.
Beyond the sentence level, there are issues with the story and characters. Even by the end I felt I hardly knew Eliza at all, and what I knew did not inspire anything but disappointment. The book was not about Eliza.
By the end I did not like any member of this family. Putting it politely, Hamilton was a rogue and his wife was a doormat. As one example, Hamilton may have forged letters supposedly written to him by a married woman in order to avoid being prosecuted for financial impropriety. Or maybe, when he publicly confessed the affair, he was not destroying an innocent married woman's life, but telling the truth and only ruining Eliza's life. He left her $50,000 in debt, in part because he always had her living at some distance from the city where he worked and maybe (according to him, certainly) was having affairs. He praised his wife in letters, promised for all the years of his marriage that they would be together and they rarely were, though he did manage to keep her pregnant. Perhaps it was Hamilton who was "famously louche and horny." He also bought slaves, and admitted to marrying Eliza for her money, though he did find her biddable and "handsome" but not beautiful. Somehow she managed her family's accounts for years but was completely ignorant of debt or her husband's sexual, political, and money troubles? Why don't I believe any of it?
What was he thinking? Few of the rich men or wanna-be rich men of his era bear close scrutiny. This was supposed to be Eliza's story, but the 50 years she lived after her husband's death are covered in a snap. I was kind of disgusted by the end of it.
It was an ARC. Thank you for not making me pay for this.
Back when we studied the "founding fathers" I disliked Hamilton. He seemed even then to be a self-serving jerk. The manner of his death was ridiculous and irrational. His innovations and policies in the early days of our nation were smart, revolutionary, and sometimes nasty.
Also: There have been corrections (I hope). The family tree at the front of the book should have been helpful but was unreliable. Birthdates in particular were not accurate. One couple seemed to have birthed their first child when both mother and father were under the age of 7. Eliza's birthdate was listed as a year before her older sister's. [I trust all this has been corrected.] I spent a lot of time on Wikipedia verifying relationships and dates. I did learn a great deal reading this book, but I credit my own reading-between-the-lines and independent research more than this author.
And then the lines such as: "Aaron Burr was famously louche and horny." What about a sentence combining a high school senior's vocabulary word with slang? Humor? Not to mention "a hot bullet tore through Hamilton's abdomen, shattering his rib cage." Nothing actually wrong with either one, except that I found sentence structures like this gave me pause on almost every page.
Beyond the sentence level, there are issues with the story and characters. Even by the end I felt I hardly knew Eliza at all, and what I knew did not inspire anything but disappointment. The book was not about Eliza.
By the end I did not like any member of this family. Putting it politely, Hamilton was a rogue and his wife was a doormat. As one example, Hamilton may have forged letters supposedly written to him by a married woman in order to avoid being prosecuted for financial impropriety. Or maybe, when he publicly confessed the affair, he was not destroying an innocent married woman's life, but telling the truth and only ruining Eliza's life. He left her $50,000 in debt, in part because he always had her living at some distance from the city where he worked and maybe (according to him, certainly) was having affairs. He praised his wife in letters, promised for all the years of his marriage that they would be together and they rarely were, though he did manage to keep her pregnant. Perhaps it was Hamilton who was "famously louche and horny." He also bought slaves, and admitted to marrying Eliza for her money, though he did find her biddable and "handsome" but not beautiful. Somehow she managed her family's accounts for years but was completely ignorant of debt or her husband's sexual, political, and money troubles? Why don't I believe any of it?
What was he thinking? Few of the rich men or wanna-be rich men of his era bear close scrutiny. This was supposed to be Eliza's story, but the 50 years she lived after her husband's death are covered in a snap. I was kind of disgusted by the end of it.
It was an ARC. Thank you for not making me pay for this.
Back when we studied the "founding fathers" I disliked Hamilton. He seemed even then to be a self-serving jerk. The manner of his death was ridiculous and irrational. His innovations and policies in the early days of our nation were smart, revolutionary, and sometimes nasty.
Also: There have been corrections (I hope). The family tree at the front of the book should have been helpful but was unreliable. Birthdates in particular were not accurate. One couple seemed to have birthed their first child when both mother and father were under the age of 7. Eliza's birthdate was listed as a year before her older sister's. [I trust all this has been corrected.] I spent a lot of time on Wikipedia verifying relationships and dates. I did learn a great deal reading this book, but I credit my own reading-between-the-lines and independent research more than this author.
November 3, 2018
I can't understand the high ratings this book has garnered or why it is classified as a biography. The research is sloppy and the fictionalized additions by the author don't add to the book's credibility. The book's publication soon after the Hamilton musical's amazing
success makes me question the timing and perhaps the author's motivation in writing the book.
Eliza Hamilton was an intriguing personality in history and deserves a proper biography.
success makes me question the timing and perhaps the author's motivation in writing the book.
Eliza Hamilton was an intriguing personality in history and deserves a proper biography.
March 16, 2019
The author states that she is not a historian; this is the truest thing she's written in the entire book.
I've spent the last year or so doing an in-depth survey of Alexander Hamilton's life, times, and legacy, and along the way, I've also learned quite a bit about Eliza and the Schuyler family (even visiting their homes in Albany & Saratoga). I don't expect every book I read to be a doctorate-level dissertation, but this... this was some really BAD history.
For one thing, the author couldn't seem to decide if she was writing a novel or a biography. With a novel, you can place your characters in imagined situations and give them pretty words to say. If you're writing non-fiction, it's best to stay away from flights of fancy unless you have historical evidence to back it up with. Mazzeo is woefully lacking in her evidence--I'll come back to this!--and gives as fact situations that did not exist. When the book's prelude opens with a description of Eliza's thoughts & feelings as she reads a letter from her fiance, I hoped that it was just a fanciful re-imagination that would give way to an actual historical account, but unfortunately, the entire book was written this way. Too much emphasis on sweaty palms and heaving breasts, not nearly enough on verifiable facts!
What historical accounts do make their way into the text are often wildly misconstrued. Mazzeo clearly empathizes with Eliza, to the detriment of all those around her. Angelica & Alexander certainly come off badly, but the author even casts TENCH TILGHMAN as a rake, based on her interpretation of a few vague lines in his memoirs (I've searched for further proof of his womanizing and come up empty-handed). The most absurd part of all is when Mazzeo repeats claims that Hamilton wrote the 'Reynolds Pamphlet' (his confession to an extra-marital affair) to cover up for the fact that he was embezzling money from the government for his in-laws! This is based on the scurrilous accusations of 18th C. partisan journalists and one historian, Julian P. Boyd, from the mid-20th C. Not only were there several investigations into the Treasury Secretary's records both during AND after his tenure--none of which turned up a single shred of evidence--but Hamilton & Philip Schuyler both died more-or-less insolvent.
The author's greatest sins of all, IMHO, are in her footnotes & bibliography. Many of her sources are not historical documents at all, but articles off of websites. THE INTERNET IS NOT A PRIMARY SOURCE, FOLKS. Some of her more spurious claims can be traced to faulty or biased material (including the single worst book I've read on Hamilton, Tucker's 'Alexander Hamilton's Revolution.' If an author cannot spell your subject's name correctly--Tucker's book refers to 'Elizabeth Schuler Hamilton' at one point--maybe you shouldn't rely on his information?). When she *does* refer to primary documents, Mazzeo makes some major errors. In one instance, she mixes up & mis-attributes several letters by John Adams; Adams notoriously slandered Hamilton after his death, but where Mazzeo points to his letters with Dr Benjamin Rush, most of the information she quotes came from a letter TO Adams, where the writer is *refuting* the claims of serial adultery on Hamilton's part.
TL;DR - save yourself the trouble and avoid this book.
I've spent the last year or so doing an in-depth survey of Alexander Hamilton's life, times, and legacy, and along the way, I've also learned quite a bit about Eliza and the Schuyler family (even visiting their homes in Albany & Saratoga). I don't expect every book I read to be a doctorate-level dissertation, but this... this was some really BAD history.
For one thing, the author couldn't seem to decide if she was writing a novel or a biography. With a novel, you can place your characters in imagined situations and give them pretty words to say. If you're writing non-fiction, it's best to stay away from flights of fancy unless you have historical evidence to back it up with. Mazzeo is woefully lacking in her evidence--I'll come back to this!--and gives as fact situations that did not exist. When the book's prelude opens with a description of Eliza's thoughts & feelings as she reads a letter from her fiance, I hoped that it was just a fanciful re-imagination that would give way to an actual historical account, but unfortunately, the entire book was written this way. Too much emphasis on sweaty palms and heaving breasts, not nearly enough on verifiable facts!
What historical accounts do make their way into the text are often wildly misconstrued. Mazzeo clearly empathizes with Eliza, to the detriment of all those around her. Angelica & Alexander certainly come off badly, but the author even casts TENCH TILGHMAN as a rake, based on her interpretation of a few vague lines in his memoirs (I've searched for further proof of his womanizing and come up empty-handed). The most absurd part of all is when Mazzeo repeats claims that Hamilton wrote the 'Reynolds Pamphlet' (his confession to an extra-marital affair) to cover up for the fact that he was embezzling money from the government for his in-laws! This is based on the scurrilous accusations of 18th C. partisan journalists and one historian, Julian P. Boyd, from the mid-20th C. Not only were there several investigations into the Treasury Secretary's records both during AND after his tenure--none of which turned up a single shred of evidence--but Hamilton & Philip Schuyler both died more-or-less insolvent.
The author's greatest sins of all, IMHO, are in her footnotes & bibliography. Many of her sources are not historical documents at all, but articles off of websites. THE INTERNET IS NOT A PRIMARY SOURCE, FOLKS. Some of her more spurious claims can be traced to faulty or biased material (including the single worst book I've read on Hamilton, Tucker's 'Alexander Hamilton's Revolution.' If an author cannot spell your subject's name correctly--Tucker's book refers to 'Elizabeth Schuler Hamilton' at one point--maybe you shouldn't rely on his information?). When she *does* refer to primary documents, Mazzeo makes some major errors. In one instance, she mixes up & mis-attributes several letters by John Adams; Adams notoriously slandered Hamilton after his death, but where Mazzeo points to his letters with Dr Benjamin Rush, most of the information she quotes came from a letter TO Adams, where the writer is *refuting* the claims of serial adultery on Hamilton's part.
TL;DR - save yourself the trouble and avoid this book.
December 16, 2024
This is an entertaining, well-written, fast paced, informative biography of Eliza Hamilton. I truly enjoyed being immersed in Eliza's fascinating life from her childhood until her death, and learned many interesting facts about her and her family. I listened to the audiobook, and the narrator, Ms. January LaVoy, does an outstanding job narrating Eliza's story.
July 8, 2020
Add Tilar J. Mazzeo's Eliza Hamilton to the list of books that wouldn't exist without a certain musical's success. Whereas most authors writing about Alexander Hamilton's wife choose the format of fiction, Mazzeo attempts to write a biography, and the reader is left wondering whether it's worth the effort. Certainly Mazzeo's book is written with a variety of novelistic flourishes (frequently inserting herself into characters' private thoughts, for instance) that detract from the claim of nonfiction; she also peppers the text with Hamilton lyrics (one chapter is literally titled "All of the Schuyler Girls - and Peggy") which, at the risk of seeming snobbish, doesn't vouch for her reliability. She also makes the bizarre claim that Hamilton never actually engaged in an affair with Maria Reynolds; Mazzeo's "evidence," such as it is, is an assertion that Alexander was simply too smart to cheat on his wife (!?!). But the problem here is deeper: the vast majority of the book's devoted to Eliza's marriage to Alexander, which is arguably the least interesting part of her life. She grew into a formidable person in her own right, as a philanthropist and political activist, after her husband's death; unfortunately, Mazzeo seems more interested in Eliza the long-suffering, dutiful wife than the woman who belatedly, but forcefully "made herself part of the narrative." The result is a book that does little credit to this "best of wives and best of women," rendering her a supporting player to her husband even in her own biography.
August 18, 2022
Tell me why I expected the songs to break out during the duels???? I mean if I'm gonna lose it at work I could at least blame it on that!
Yep I lost it. Luckily I made it home okay. Hamilton technically did not really have anything to do with this book and yet it did just from another perspective. Sadly I feel like the story was rushed and i dont know if that’s because the author felt rushed to finish and release. (I’m not exactly sure what the dates are which came first etc). But damn it the musical, once you have seen it, becomes a part of your brain not just an earwig. And that’s why Philip can’t get shot because then I have to picture Eliza cry like a mother does when her child is ripped from her heart. And then feel so proud of her when she becomes a tower of forgiveness. And then how about when she thinks she just can’t take any more suffering and she loses her tomcat of a husband, that, let’s face it, he not only belonged to her but belonged to our burgeoning country. Tears, dripping out of my eyeballs, tears.
Yep I lost it. Luckily I made it home okay. Hamilton technically did not really have anything to do with this book and yet it did just from another perspective. Sadly I feel like the story was rushed and i dont know if that’s because the author felt rushed to finish and release. (I’m not exactly sure what the dates are which came first etc). But damn it the musical, once you have seen it, becomes a part of your brain not just an earwig. And that’s why Philip can’t get shot because then I have to picture Eliza cry like a mother does when her child is ripped from her heart. And then feel so proud of her when she becomes a tower of forgiveness. And then how about when she thinks she just can’t take any more suffering and she loses her tomcat of a husband, that, let’s face it, he not only belonged to her but belonged to our burgeoning country. Tears, dripping out of my eyeballs, tears.
July 11, 2019
I requested this book as soon as I saw it pop up on NetGalley. Eliza Hamilton has an amazing story that hasn't been comprehensively explored. She is often in the background of her husband's story, despite living over twice as long as he did. I have not read a book, fiction or nonfiction, that gives a satisfactory and complete account of Eliza's post-Alexander years. This book promised to be the one I was looking for.
But it's not. Not by a long shot.
As many other reviewers have pointed out, the author seems uncertainly wavering between writing a novel and a biography. Lines such as this one appear throughout the book: "Eliza was frantic and had a terrible sense of foreboding. She wanted to come home." Thoughts are also put into other people's heads: "What upset his political enemies were Alexander's words, which were elegant, powerful, and persuasive. They hated his mind." The author seems to know what Eliza was doing at moments that passed unrecorded: "Eliza settled back and smiled to herself."
Sources are rarely cited, though very specific statements are made about people's motivations, personalities, and relationships. The most significant example of this is when the author claims that it is very likely that the Reynolds affair was no affair at all but a cover story to avoid persecution for insider trading. The greatest defense for this seems to be that the author cannot imagine the Eliza "she knows" faithfully defending Alexander's name for 55 years after his death if there was any truth to the pamphlet that Alexander himself wrote. My problem with this reasoning is that I don't see any reason to doubt that the Eliza described in this book would forgive an affair and defend her husband's more positive attributes until her death. She was a strong, intelligent, devoted woman, but she was also a woman of her time and women of the 18th century didn't publicly air their dirty laundry. It is likely that in Eliza's mind, an affair reflected as poorly on her as a wife as it did on Alexander as a husband. If Alexander was guilty of fraud, why did he leave Eliza impoverished? Could Mazzeo's theory be true? Possibly, but there's no evidence to back it up. The basis of the frequently made assertion - that Maria Reynolds had been willing to testify that the affair didn't happen - was unclear.
As usual, Eliza's life is overwhelmed by Alexander. The years after his death are filled with Eliza longing for him, rather than giving greater detail of her accomplishments. This book carries the subtitle, "The extraordinary life and times of the wife of Alexander Hamilton," but very little is included to draw the reader into Eliza's everyday life. We are told that she (and her mother, sisters, & daughters) were raised to manage a household & were therefore good at organizing charities, but we are told nothing of what that would entail or what duties Eliza would perform on a daily basis. I would have loved more factual information like this rather than supposition regarding relationships and other unknowns.
Maybe my hopes for this book were too high, but I will continue to wait for Elizabeth Hamilton to get the biography she deserves.
Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this book. Opinions are my own.
But it's not. Not by a long shot.
As many other reviewers have pointed out, the author seems uncertainly wavering between writing a novel and a biography. Lines such as this one appear throughout the book: "Eliza was frantic and had a terrible sense of foreboding. She wanted to come home." Thoughts are also put into other people's heads: "What upset his political enemies were Alexander's words, which were elegant, powerful, and persuasive. They hated his mind." The author seems to know what Eliza was doing at moments that passed unrecorded: "Eliza settled back and smiled to herself."
Sources are rarely cited, though very specific statements are made about people's motivations, personalities, and relationships. The most significant example of this is when the author claims that it is very likely that the Reynolds affair was no affair at all but a cover story to avoid persecution for insider trading. The greatest defense for this seems to be that the author cannot imagine the Eliza "she knows" faithfully defending Alexander's name for 55 years after his death if there was any truth to the pamphlet that Alexander himself wrote. My problem with this reasoning is that I don't see any reason to doubt that the Eliza described in this book would forgive an affair and defend her husband's more positive attributes until her death. She was a strong, intelligent, devoted woman, but she was also a woman of her time and women of the 18th century didn't publicly air their dirty laundry. It is likely that in Eliza's mind, an affair reflected as poorly on her as a wife as it did on Alexander as a husband. If Alexander was guilty of fraud, why did he leave Eliza impoverished? Could Mazzeo's theory be true? Possibly, but there's no evidence to back it up. The basis of the frequently made assertion - that Maria Reynolds had been willing to testify that the affair didn't happen - was unclear.
As usual, Eliza's life is overwhelmed by Alexander. The years after his death are filled with Eliza longing for him, rather than giving greater detail of her accomplishments. This book carries the subtitle, "The extraordinary life and times of the wife of Alexander Hamilton," but very little is included to draw the reader into Eliza's everyday life. We are told that she (and her mother, sisters, & daughters) were raised to manage a household & were therefore good at organizing charities, but we are told nothing of what that would entail or what duties Eliza would perform on a daily basis. I would have loved more factual information like this rather than supposition regarding relationships and other unknowns.
Maybe my hopes for this book were too high, but I will continue to wait for Elizabeth Hamilton to get the biography she deserves.
Thank you to NetGalley for my copy of this book. Opinions are my own.
March 23, 2019
The blurb on the cover states: “Tilar Mazzeo brings Eliza Hamilton to life...fast-paced and reads like a novel.”
And why does it read like a novel? Because that’s what it IS!
Just how, pray tell, does Mazzeo know how Hamilton thought, acted, or felt? How does Mazzeo constantly know Hamilton’s emotional state, or what she did down to the last minute of every waking day? Short answer: She doesn’t — she can’t. She can only imagine and infer, which, my friends, is FICTION when put in writing.
Eliza Hamilton is perhaps the most intriguing woman of 18th century America. She deserves better than this breathlessly written, overwrought soap opera on paper, whose only reason (let’s be honest) for existence is the resurgence of interest in Alexander Hamilton thanks to the brilliant Lin-Manuel Miranda — who just happens to be mentioned in the book sleeve synopsis. Coinkydink? I think not.
Books like this piss me off: badly written fiction masquerading as meticulously researched biography, and some readers treating it as such. But I do thank Ms. Mazzeo for this unintentionally hilarious (to me, anyway) passage: “Now the worry was that her despair would cause her to lose the baby. It certainly would prevent her from fast horseback riding.”
Good Lord. Ron Chernow has nothing to fear from Tilar Mazzeo.
Pass on this, and hope that someday a bona fide historian — or anyone who knows what he or she is doing — writes a credible book that objectively examines the life of this fascinating woman.
And why does it read like a novel? Because that’s what it IS!
Just how, pray tell, does Mazzeo know how Hamilton thought, acted, or felt? How does Mazzeo constantly know Hamilton’s emotional state, or what she did down to the last minute of every waking day? Short answer: She doesn’t — she can’t. She can only imagine and infer, which, my friends, is FICTION when put in writing.
Eliza Hamilton is perhaps the most intriguing woman of 18th century America. She deserves better than this breathlessly written, overwrought soap opera on paper, whose only reason (let’s be honest) for existence is the resurgence of interest in Alexander Hamilton thanks to the brilliant Lin-Manuel Miranda — who just happens to be mentioned in the book sleeve synopsis. Coinkydink? I think not.
Books like this piss me off: badly written fiction masquerading as meticulously researched biography, and some readers treating it as such. But I do thank Ms. Mazzeo for this unintentionally hilarious (to me, anyway) passage: “Now the worry was that her despair would cause her to lose the baby. It certainly would prevent her from fast horseback riding.”
Good Lord. Ron Chernow has nothing to fear from Tilar Mazzeo.
Pass on this, and hope that someday a bona fide historian — or anyone who knows what he or she is doing — writes a credible book that objectively examines the life of this fascinating woman.
February 10, 2019
My husband and I recently saw the musical Hamilton, and like many people who have that pleasure, I was curious to know more about Alexander Hamilton and his wife Eliza.
This was a good biography, and I understand it is the ONLY complete biography of Eliza Hamilton. It gave me the information I wanted and was written in a very readable, novelistic form. In several places, Mazzeo assumes that she knows what someone was thinking, which is a little jarring in a serious biography, but in almost every case, I felt that the author’s assumptions about her subject’s feelings or thinking were well-researched and probably accurate. It was obvious that Mazzeo not only did research to dig out the facts about Mrs. Hamilton; she also made an attempt to get deep into Eliza’s head, which made the book more interesting to me – and which leads her to a contrarian view of the Reynolds affair.
The early American setting is also very well-done. We get a sense for the dangerous frontier that New York state still was early in Eliza’s life, and for the social mores of upper-class life in the early years of our nation’s history. Eliza endures her share of heartbreak and hardship, as well, which made her sympathetic and admirable character.
Like my reviews? Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com/blog/
Author of The Saint's Mistress: https://www.bing.com/search?q=amazon....
This was a good biography, and I understand it is the ONLY complete biography of Eliza Hamilton. It gave me the information I wanted and was written in a very readable, novelistic form. In several places, Mazzeo assumes that she knows what someone was thinking, which is a little jarring in a serious biography, but in almost every case, I felt that the author’s assumptions about her subject’s feelings or thinking were well-researched and probably accurate. It was obvious that Mazzeo not only did research to dig out the facts about Mrs. Hamilton; she also made an attempt to get deep into Eliza’s head, which made the book more interesting to me – and which leads her to a contrarian view of the Reynolds affair.
The early American setting is also very well-done. We get a sense for the dangerous frontier that New York state still was early in Eliza’s life, and for the social mores of upper-class life in the early years of our nation’s history. Eliza endures her share of heartbreak and hardship, as well, which made her sympathetic and admirable character.
Like my reviews? Check out my blog at http://www.kathrynbashaar.com/blog/
Author of The Saint's Mistress: https://www.bing.com/search?q=amazon....
March 29, 2019
This book is not a biography and the author is simply trying to capitalize on the success of the musical Hamilton. If naming chapters “and Peggy” and “Winter’s Ball” was not evidence enough, the very first line of the Author’s Note quotes the musical as well.
At best, this book is an historical fiction, and not a very enjoyable one. I started the book with the expectation of a biography. This delusion was quickly shattered as the book is peppered with expressions like “Eliza smiled” or “Eliza sighed.” After the realization that I was not reading a biography, reading the book became a chore. I was determined to finish what I started, if for no other reason than to be able to write a fair review based on the label of historical fiction rather than biography. To this point, I am still struggling. I have looked ahead to discover the part of Eliza’s life I was most interested in, the last 50 years after Hamiltons’s death, comprise barely more than 1 page per year, hardly a surprise as the broadway hit about her husband only had 1 song about Eliza’s last 50 years. This is a woman who dined with presidents, had a part in commissioning the Washington monument, founded an orphanage, and the majority of her story as written here is wrapped around her husband and his career and the author’s guesses as to Eliza’s private responses. The policy here seems to be “if we don’t have proof let’s make it up.”
Finally, the author’s position on the Reynolds’s affair and subsequent scandal has very little basis in reality. The author assumes that the affair was a cover up for speculating on the part of Alexander and that Eliza knew about all of it the entire time. This seems far fetched and is countered in an actual biography, Hamilton by Ron Chernow- the book upon which the musical is based instead of the other way around. Chernow’s book also only dedicates a few pages at the end to Eliza’s life after Hamilton, but even those few pages are of more substance than the entirety of this book. I would recommend that you don’t waste your time or money.
At best, this book is an historical fiction, and not a very enjoyable one. I started the book with the expectation of a biography. This delusion was quickly shattered as the book is peppered with expressions like “Eliza smiled” or “Eliza sighed.” After the realization that I was not reading a biography, reading the book became a chore. I was determined to finish what I started, if for no other reason than to be able to write a fair review based on the label of historical fiction rather than biography. To this point, I am still struggling. I have looked ahead to discover the part of Eliza’s life I was most interested in, the last 50 years after Hamiltons’s death, comprise barely more than 1 page per year, hardly a surprise as the broadway hit about her husband only had 1 song about Eliza’s last 50 years. This is a woman who dined with presidents, had a part in commissioning the Washington monument, founded an orphanage, and the majority of her story as written here is wrapped around her husband and his career and the author’s guesses as to Eliza’s private responses. The policy here seems to be “if we don’t have proof let’s make it up.”
Finally, the author’s position on the Reynolds’s affair and subsequent scandal has very little basis in reality. The author assumes that the affair was a cover up for speculating on the part of Alexander and that Eliza knew about all of it the entire time. This seems far fetched and is countered in an actual biography, Hamilton by Ron Chernow- the book upon which the musical is based instead of the other way around. Chernow’s book also only dedicates a few pages at the end to Eliza’s life after Hamilton, but even those few pages are of more substance than the entirety of this book. I would recommend that you don’t waste your time or money.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 22, 2018
I loved this super readable biography of Eliza Hamilton. For anyone who can't get enough of the Hamilton craze, or just wants to learn more about a strong woman coming of age with America, this is a great read.
My one caveat is that it's told in such a wonderfully readable style (it's not dry at all), that I was a little uncomfortable with the author authoritatively saying what Eliza's reactions to events, etc were. I wish there was more source material from Eliza herself. However, there's just so much you can know about someone and how they felt. I'm glad that I was able to read a biography about Eliza Hamilton. I'd love more on the Schuyler sisters.
My one caveat is that it's told in such a wonderfully readable style (it's not dry at all), that I was a little uncomfortable with the author authoritatively saying what Eliza's reactions to events, etc were. I wish there was more source material from Eliza herself. However, there's just so much you can know about someone and how they felt. I'm glad that I was able to read a biography about Eliza Hamilton. I'd love more on the Schuyler sisters.
October 15, 2018
This is a hard one to rate, simply because I almost feel like it should be under historical fiction rather than Biography. I know there are not a lot of source materials from Eliza herself, but I did not like how the author would infer or state things about Eliza that she actually has no way of knowing. For example, saying that Eliza blushed. Really? How did she know that? I think the author took a lot of leeway. Also, the theory the author raises around the Maria Reynolds scandal is interesting and she does have some good arguments for why it could have happened the way she states. But I feel like it was a little too one-sided and maybe the author ignored or did not explore other historical documents that back up the traditional story. She was too focused on making her point to address other historical facts that may not have validated her theory. Also, Eliza lived for 50 years after the death of Alexander. But the author does not spend much time on those 50 years. It is almost as if Eliza's life only mattered while she was married to Alexander.
December 30, 2018
This book gets two stars because of the subject matter - I’d never rate anything involving Eliza Hamilton lower. If you want to read this biography please understand, though, that it is NOT a biography. This is a work of historical fiction couched as a biography by an author riding on the coattails of Miranda and Chernow. The front cover praise indicates that it “reads like a novel” and it does, because it is. I don’t see how a proper historian writes a biography that focuses almost entirely on how Eliza thought and felt, without historical proof of these things that are unknowable. Far too many creative liberties were taken by the author in filling in historical gaps with her ideas about what Eliza must have done or thought in private, undocumented moments. I’d love to read a true biography about this woman, but this sadly wasn’t it. I wouldn’t recommend anyone else paying for this book that was clearly only written in an attempt to strike while the Hamilton iron is hot by writing a lazily put together book on a woman who deserves much better than that.
July 31, 2019
Like many fans of the musical, I was curious about Eliza Hamilton and was excited when I found this biography. I was worried when I saw reviewers, upset over one of the conclusions the author drew, slamming this book as poorly researched. I did go through the citations, which some dismissed as referring to online sources. Those online sources are university databases (Harvard among them) and legitimate academic journals that have been posted online, which do qualify as valid sources and if you go through the citations of moderns books they do increasingly include such online databases, so slamming this book as poorly researched because it includes online sources is disingenuous, especially as including these links also allow readers to easily view the material themselves. Ms. Mazzeo also cites tons of letters, books, and other acceptable material. I am not a historian, but from what I can tell her sources were valid. And history is not a monolithic, black and white study. Ms. Mazzeo presented some material that challenged the narrative presented in the musical, and while I'm not sure I agree with her interpretation, I appreciate that it broadened my understanding of the Reynolds affair.
As for the book itself, I did get annoyed with the passages that read like novels, painting a scene and getting into the mind of the subject. I have noticed more biographies doing this, and I wish it would stop. That said, Ms. Mazzeo uses it sparingly, only a paragraph or two to get readers into the scene before reverting to a style more befitting a biography. She would also go chapters without using the novel format, so while it was present it was sparing and not enough for me to ding her on. In fact, I will say is some biographer is bound and determined to use that style, to do it in a manner that Ms. Mazzeo did.
That quibble aside, I did really enjoy reading about Eliza Hamilton. It was fascinating reading about a time when New York was the frontier, especially as I grew up reading the Little House books where the frontier was Kansas, and seeing the differences between the two frontiers was captivating. For instance, young Eliza was trusted by her father to help him negotiate with the Iroquois and she was given an Indian name. Relations with the American Indians were far from some Utopian ideal and there was war, but this was a time when there was hope of the two populations coexisting peacefully that was bittersweet to read about and a far cry from how badly things had deteriorated by the time Laura Ingalls Wilder was running through the prairie.
This anecdote, as well as anecdotes about how Eliza preferred to spend her time climbing trees, racing horses and, at the age of 80, even going on a continental trip to climb mountains and enjoy nature, rounded Eliza out well and started to fill in more of who she was outside of Alexander Hamilton's wife, if only to a point. That only a few chapters were dedicated to the fifty years after Alexander died that Eliza lived was disappointing. And while Alexander lived, he did dominate the narrative. Perhaps it is inevitable, especially as Eliza burned much of her letters and preferred to stay out of the narrative. Still, I do feel as though I have a better understanding of who Eliza was, as well as who other people in her life were.
Sadly, whatever brilliance her sister, Angelica Schuyler Church, possessed gets lost in this book. Angelica came off as foolish and an affluenza case, even if she was dedicated to her family. That said, it did answer some questions I had about Eliza and Alexander's daughter, Angelica Hamilton, who had a mental breakdown after her brother, Philip, died. I had wondered if Angelica Hamilton suffered from schizophrenia, but there wasn't enough information in previous things I've read. Ms. Mazzeo filled in a lot of helpful details, such as how Angelica Hamilton had prodromal symptoms before Philip died and that she would cycle between catatonia, believing her brother and father were alive, and lucid moments that definitely resemble schizophrenia. Sadly Angelica Hamilton likely would have had a mental break regardless, but Philip's death likely hastened it, and I appreciate having my suspicions about the nature of Angelica Hamilton's mental breakdown confirmed.
Yet the most pleasant surprise was reading about how the mother of the Schuyler sisters was a tough Revolutionary War heroine in her own right! Really, look up Kitty Schuyler!
It was also nice getting a more nuanced portrait of the Hamilton's marriage, including the ongoing conflicts that they fought over and shared purpose that kept them together.
As for the Reynolds affair, Ms. Mazzeo makes the claim that Hamilton invented it to cover for financial misdeeds, or the appearance of financial misdeeds, and that Eliza was in on it. This is not a new claim, it is something that James Monroe and Thomas Jefferson and other enemies of Hamilton believed. Ms. Mazzeo admits that there is no proof that the Maria Reynolds affair was a fabrication, and that there was no evidence of financial misdealing on Hamilton's part, but that it made sense to her based on Alexander and Eliza's behavior and how tightly Eliza clung to Alexander after the affair was revealed.
I am a counselor who has worked with clients who are attempting to repair their marriage after an affair, and I will say Eliza's behavior is actually not as unusual as it may seem. When some people learn that their partner has cheated some respond by clinging more tightly to prove they are a worthy spouse (and if their partner continues to pull away are usually left embarrassed at how hard they tried to make it work), so I take issue with Ms. Mazzeo's interpretation. Ms. Mazzeo also discounts the possibility that Eliza could have been Alexander's fool, yet just because someone is smart and level headed doesn't mean that they don't have blindspots. To illustrate, look at the reasons Angelica Schuyler Church got married. And Hillary Clinton would be a modern example of a smart, level headed woman whose husband made a fool of her (as well as one whose marriage survived the affair). I will also say that if Alexander had an affair it would make sense that Eliza became so emotionally distraught whenever they were separated after it was revealed. She wasn't there to keep an eye on him. Ms. Mazzeo falls into the error of thinking that smart people always made smart, rational choices when smart people are just as susceptible to dumb mistakes and irrational thinking and having blindspots or being fooled by people as anyone else, so using Eliza's behavior as proof that the Maria Reynold's affair didn't happen isn't as foolproof as it may seem.
I do understand how the Maria Reynolds affair being fabricated fit into the narrative that Ms. Mazzeo was building, though. I am not a historian, I have not shifted through the reams of evidence on the Reynolds affair and I don't have the legal knowledge to tell if Hamilton was engaging in financial misdealings (though given that he was known as a financial genius yet was never able to get on firm financial grounds personally, if he was misdealing to line his pockets he was doing a horrible job of it). I have to rely on what historians who have looked at the evidence say and how well they present their case. While I am not convinced that the Reynold's affair was fabricated, I do appreciate that Ms. Mazzeo has broadened my education on the scandal and what Hamilton's enemies thought and presented an alternate point of view. As for the whether the affair was fabricated, hopefully some other historian will decide to write a whole book tackling that question.
In all, I enjoyed reading this and learning more about the Hamilton family and Eliza in particular. It is a shame that women were so poorly valued that Eliza underestimated her importance to history and did not feel confident enough in her letters to preserve them. This book did answer some questions that I had and it also opened up new rabbit holes to pursue. I would recommend.
As for the book itself, I did get annoyed with the passages that read like novels, painting a scene and getting into the mind of the subject. I have noticed more biographies doing this, and I wish it would stop. That said, Ms. Mazzeo uses it sparingly, only a paragraph or two to get readers into the scene before reverting to a style more befitting a biography. She would also go chapters without using the novel format, so while it was present it was sparing and not enough for me to ding her on. In fact, I will say is some biographer is bound and determined to use that style, to do it in a manner that Ms. Mazzeo did.
That quibble aside, I did really enjoy reading about Eliza Hamilton. It was fascinating reading about a time when New York was the frontier, especially as I grew up reading the Little House books where the frontier was Kansas, and seeing the differences between the two frontiers was captivating. For instance, young Eliza was trusted by her father to help him negotiate with the Iroquois and she was given an Indian name. Relations with the American Indians were far from some Utopian ideal and there was war, but this was a time when there was hope of the two populations coexisting peacefully that was bittersweet to read about and a far cry from how badly things had deteriorated by the time Laura Ingalls Wilder was running through the prairie.
This anecdote, as well as anecdotes about how Eliza preferred to spend her time climbing trees, racing horses and, at the age of 80, even going on a continental trip to climb mountains and enjoy nature, rounded Eliza out well and started to fill in more of who she was outside of Alexander Hamilton's wife, if only to a point. That only a few chapters were dedicated to the fifty years after Alexander died that Eliza lived was disappointing. And while Alexander lived, he did dominate the narrative. Perhaps it is inevitable, especially as Eliza burned much of her letters and preferred to stay out of the narrative. Still, I do feel as though I have a better understanding of who Eliza was, as well as who other people in her life were.
Sadly, whatever brilliance her sister, Angelica Schuyler Church, possessed gets lost in this book. Angelica came off as foolish and an affluenza case, even if she was dedicated to her family. That said, it did answer some questions I had about Eliza and Alexander's daughter, Angelica Hamilton, who had a mental breakdown after her brother, Philip, died. I had wondered if Angelica Hamilton suffered from schizophrenia, but there wasn't enough information in previous things I've read. Ms. Mazzeo filled in a lot of helpful details, such as how Angelica Hamilton had prodromal symptoms before Philip died and that she would cycle between catatonia, believing her brother and father were alive, and lucid moments that definitely resemble schizophrenia. Sadly Angelica Hamilton likely would have had a mental break regardless, but Philip's death likely hastened it, and I appreciate having my suspicions about the nature of Angelica Hamilton's mental breakdown confirmed.
Yet the most pleasant surprise was reading about how the mother of the Schuyler sisters was a tough Revolutionary War heroine in her own right! Really, look up Kitty Schuyler!
It was also nice getting a more nuanced portrait of the Hamilton's marriage, including the ongoing conflicts that they fought over and shared purpose that kept them together.
As for the Reynolds affair, Ms. Mazzeo makes the claim that Hamilton invented it to cover for financial misdeeds, or the appearance of financial misdeeds, and that Eliza was in on it. This is not a new claim, it is something that James Monroe and Thomas Jefferson and other enemies of Hamilton believed. Ms. Mazzeo admits that there is no proof that the Maria Reynolds affair was a fabrication, and that there was no evidence of financial misdealing on Hamilton's part, but that it made sense to her based on Alexander and Eliza's behavior and how tightly Eliza clung to Alexander after the affair was revealed.
I am a counselor who has worked with clients who are attempting to repair their marriage after an affair, and I will say Eliza's behavior is actually not as unusual as it may seem. When some people learn that their partner has cheated some respond by clinging more tightly to prove they are a worthy spouse (and if their partner continues to pull away are usually left embarrassed at how hard they tried to make it work), so I take issue with Ms. Mazzeo's interpretation. Ms. Mazzeo also discounts the possibility that Eliza could have been Alexander's fool, yet just because someone is smart and level headed doesn't mean that they don't have blindspots. To illustrate, look at the reasons Angelica Schuyler Church got married. And Hillary Clinton would be a modern example of a smart, level headed woman whose husband made a fool of her (as well as one whose marriage survived the affair). I will also say that if Alexander had an affair it would make sense that Eliza became so emotionally distraught whenever they were separated after it was revealed. She wasn't there to keep an eye on him. Ms. Mazzeo falls into the error of thinking that smart people always made smart, rational choices when smart people are just as susceptible to dumb mistakes and irrational thinking and having blindspots or being fooled by people as anyone else, so using Eliza's behavior as proof that the Maria Reynold's affair didn't happen isn't as foolproof as it may seem.
I do understand how the Maria Reynolds affair being fabricated fit into the narrative that Ms. Mazzeo was building, though. I am not a historian, I have not shifted through the reams of evidence on the Reynolds affair and I don't have the legal knowledge to tell if Hamilton was engaging in financial misdealings (though given that he was known as a financial genius yet was never able to get on firm financial grounds personally, if he was misdealing to line his pockets he was doing a horrible job of it). I have to rely on what historians who have looked at the evidence say and how well they present their case. While I am not convinced that the Reynold's affair was fabricated, I do appreciate that Ms. Mazzeo has broadened my education on the scandal and what Hamilton's enemies thought and presented an alternate point of view. As for the whether the affair was fabricated, hopefully some other historian will decide to write a whole book tackling that question.
In all, I enjoyed reading this and learning more about the Hamilton family and Eliza in particular. It is a shame that women were so poorly valued that Eliza underestimated her importance to history and did not feel confident enough in her letters to preserve them. This book did answer some questions that I had and it also opened up new rabbit holes to pursue. I would recommend.
January 6, 2019
Shoddy research, questionable sources, fictionalized passages, and numerous claims without proof/sources. I can’t finish this book because the author clearly isn’t trustworthy. This is highly disappointing. Eliza deserves better. I hope somewhere there is a scholar writing a better biography of her remarkable life, because I eagerly await being able to read it.
January 1, 2019
I am so disappointedly underwhelmed by this book. As an American Revolution scholar, and Hamilton fan, I was thrilled to see that Eliza finally had her own biography. However, Mazzeo's citations are limited, and she admits in the notes that she is not writing a "dissertation." Regardless, the creative liberties the author takes bring to question "what is fact?" Mazzeo imagines the unseen interactions between Eliza and her family in ways that can never be proven, and while this brings these historical figures to life, it also leaves space for her to tell half truths and project the narrative the author wants to tell. While I want to believe her, the facts to back up her claims are just not thoroughly provided. I look forward to a more substantiated biography on this wonderful founding mother one day.
July 20, 2018
This was an intriguing glimpse into the lives of Eliza Hamilton and her Revolutionary peers. I’m glad that while this is a biography of Eliza there was a plethora of information about the people who influenced her life and times. I’ve seen plenty about Eliza’s relationship with her husband and sisters, but this book gave me a much more complete picture of her life. I was fascinated by the historic figures she interacted with as well as her unique part of establishing the United States of America. I highly recommend this biography to American history enthusiasts as well as fans of Hamilton.
*I received an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
*I received an advanced copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
June 30, 2022
First line: "Eliza blushed."
Excuse me, she did what? How do you know?
I had some... concerns about historical rigor contained in the process of this book.
I checked it out initially as a safeguard for my biography category, if Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age ended up being dense, boring, or unreadable (which ended up being decidedly NOT the case, that book was fabulous). So maybe I did Mazzeo a disservice by reading this on the tails of such a wonderfully, rigorously researched, compelling biography on Hildegard, but I don't think I would have been super impressed even if my standards hadn't been artificially raised by Maddocks' excellent work so recently.
The journey of this book came in three parts. 1. After Eliza blushed in that first line, I had some serious doubts about this.
2. About 30 pages in I get the groove that these people are writing tons of letters and they are being kept in archives, so yes, it makes sense that we would maybe know intimate details about their lives, feelings, and reactions to things. So I'm in a groove here for two hundred or so pages
3. Scene: ELIZA BURNS HER LETTERS. (Yes, I obviously knew this happened, but for some reason I'd been so caught up on the fantasy that we had access to all this stuff that I forgot like, arguably The titular Eliza Schuyler Hamilton action.) I am once again filled with doubt, and almost a little mad I got duped into believing the historicity of the rest of it enough to keep reading because I was having a pretty good time. The passage of her burning the letters while the narrative explains what was in the letters was particularly maddening. "Here were the letters of love and fear, longing and desire for her husband...the letter from 1795 addressed to J.R." EXCUSE ME. Did she make a list as she burned them and then keep that? I wasn't feeling the mild curiosity reaction that a biography is supposed to inspire, that urge to maybe do a tad bit of independent research just to see if there's more. No, I felt both lied to and condescended to, and I found it extremely obnoxious.
(There's also a zero stage where I open to the family tree in the front of the book and get so SHOOK by the fact that Maria Reynolds and the Schuylers were distant cousins that I have to put the book down. Also I get so shook that Angelica and Peggy are both one year younger than Eliza, and that Eliza and Alex named their younger son Philip before the first Philip had even died, that I also have to put the book down. ~~~~~ NOW, Let's chat. The former fact is true, and I am still shooketh about it. But the years for the rest of it were just.....wrong? Angelica's birth year was just plain, old-fashioned not-accurate. It says 1758. in the FAMILY TREE. in the FRONT OF THE BOOK. She was not born in 1758. She was born in 1756. It says this in the text of the book in chapter one and also like four sources I double-checked. I'm sorry but what in the name of everything, what in the name of Herodotus himSELF is going on here? Is this some kind of experimental family tree where the dates listed aren't the dates of birth and death but something else? At least three dates were wrong that I could tell, and that was just from ME looking at it, and I know appr. ZERO things total in the world. I am so at a loss about this.)
Anyway, complex reactions to this book.
The main argument in favor of it, which was the same reason it was recommended to me, and the reason I'm giving it two stars instead of one, was Mazzeo's alternate reading of the evidence (or lack thereof) of the Maria Reynolds Affair. I found her reasoning compelling and solid, particularly as she made her case again in the author's note. If this book is the only full-length source that gives credence to that reading, then I think it's worth it. I don't *quite* buy the whole theory, and it is laying a /lot/ at the foot of consistency of character and logical reactions (which is...not something you can really bank on irl), but it is definitely nice to have an alternate theory about what really happened that will keep me enough in the realm of "we can never really know" to keep from swallowing the more prominent opinion without doubting it at all. Healthy. Good for the brain.
Would I have gladly read a much shorter book that had only truly, accurate, evidence-based facts without all the fluff and conjecture? Absolutely. Would I read that book if it came out now, just to cleanse my brain of the aforementioned fluff and conjecture? Yes, I definitely would. But this did convince me of what I kind of already knew: I have no interest in those fictionalised accounts. My teen self read upwards of 10 Carolyn Meyer books and now I can confidently say that yes, I am done, I am a grown up and capable of reading rigorous history and so I will! I don't need to be condescended to! Thank the heavens.
Final words: I'm not going to knock how fascinating this book was, because it totally is. I enjoyed reading it and it made me cry on more than one occasion. It also made me think all these Big Thoughts about narrative and story and the nature of lives as too big to fit into one, and the things you take out and add to make the reality of a life into a story, and how much craft goes into that, and how unbearably genius Hamilton: An American Musical is, like, as a work, and things like that. So I had a good time, and honestly, maybe this will make me finally read the copy of the Chernow biography that my grandma bought me, and I haven't had a huge fire under my butt about that so: positive effects.
Also, Mitch, if you're reading this, shoutout to what would have been the opening of this review if "this is sloppy historical work" was a joke instead of my actual reaction to this book:
Martha Washington plays a prominent role as a character in this book (did you know they were lifelong friends? That's cute.) but I can't put a lot of credence to any source that talks about an aging Martha Washington without remembering to mention that when she got older she gained a lot of weight and started dressing mostly in pastels. That's clearly the most important part of her story, and neglecting to include it is simply sloppy work.
Excuse me, she did what? How do you know?
I had some... concerns about historical rigor contained in the process of this book.
I checked it out initially as a safeguard for my biography category, if Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age ended up being dense, boring, or unreadable (which ended up being decidedly NOT the case, that book was fabulous). So maybe I did Mazzeo a disservice by reading this on the tails of such a wonderfully, rigorously researched, compelling biography on Hildegard, but I don't think I would have been super impressed even if my standards hadn't been artificially raised by Maddocks' excellent work so recently.
The journey of this book came in three parts. 1. After Eliza blushed in that first line, I had some serious doubts about this.
2. About 30 pages in I get the groove that these people are writing tons of letters and they are being kept in archives, so yes, it makes sense that we would maybe know intimate details about their lives, feelings, and reactions to things. So I'm in a groove here for two hundred or so pages
3. Scene: ELIZA BURNS HER LETTERS. (Yes, I obviously knew this happened, but for some reason I'd been so caught up on the fantasy that we had access to all this stuff that I forgot like, arguably The titular Eliza Schuyler Hamilton action.) I am once again filled with doubt, and almost a little mad I got duped into believing the historicity of the rest of it enough to keep reading because I was having a pretty good time. The passage of her burning the letters while the narrative explains what was in the letters was particularly maddening. "Here were the letters of love and fear, longing and desire for her husband...the letter from 1795 addressed to J.R." EXCUSE ME. Did she make a list as she burned them and then keep that? I wasn't feeling the mild curiosity reaction that a biography is supposed to inspire, that urge to maybe do a tad bit of independent research just to see if there's more. No, I felt both lied to and condescended to, and I found it extremely obnoxious.
(There's also a zero stage where I open to the family tree in the front of the book and get so SHOOK by the fact that Maria Reynolds and the Schuylers were distant cousins that I have to put the book down. Also I get so shook that Angelica and Peggy are both one year younger than Eliza, and that Eliza and Alex named their younger son Philip before the first Philip had even died, that I also have to put the book down. ~~~~~ NOW, Let's chat. The former fact is true, and I am still shooketh about it. But the years for the rest of it were just.....wrong? Angelica's birth year was just plain, old-fashioned not-accurate. It says 1758. in the FAMILY TREE. in the FRONT OF THE BOOK. She was not born in 1758. She was born in 1756. It says this in the text of the book in chapter one and also like four sources I double-checked. I'm sorry but what in the name of everything, what in the name of Herodotus himSELF is going on here? Is this some kind of experimental family tree where the dates listed aren't the dates of birth and death but something else? At least three dates were wrong that I could tell, and that was just from ME looking at it, and I know appr. ZERO things total in the world. I am so at a loss about this.)
Anyway, complex reactions to this book.
The main argument in favor of it, which was the same reason it was recommended to me, and the reason I'm giving it two stars instead of one, was Mazzeo's alternate reading of the evidence (or lack thereof) of the Maria Reynolds Affair. I found her reasoning compelling and solid, particularly as she made her case again in the author's note. If this book is the only full-length source that gives credence to that reading, then I think it's worth it. I don't *quite* buy the whole theory, and it is laying a /lot/ at the foot of consistency of character and logical reactions (which is...not something you can really bank on irl), but it is definitely nice to have an alternate theory about what really happened that will keep me enough in the realm of "we can never really know" to keep from swallowing the more prominent opinion without doubting it at all. Healthy. Good for the brain.
Would I have gladly read a much shorter book that had only truly, accurate, evidence-based facts without all the fluff and conjecture? Absolutely. Would I read that book if it came out now, just to cleanse my brain of the aforementioned fluff and conjecture? Yes, I definitely would. But this did convince me of what I kind of already knew: I have no interest in those fictionalised accounts. My teen self read upwards of 10 Carolyn Meyer books and now I can confidently say that yes, I am done, I am a grown up and capable of reading rigorous history and so I will! I don't need to be condescended to! Thank the heavens.
Final words: I'm not going to knock how fascinating this book was, because it totally is. I enjoyed reading it and it made me cry on more than one occasion. It also made me think all these Big Thoughts about narrative and story and the nature of lives as too big to fit into one, and the things you take out and add to make the reality of a life into a story, and how much craft goes into that, and how unbearably genius Hamilton: An American Musical is, like, as a work, and things like that. So I had a good time, and honestly, maybe this will make me finally read the copy of the Chernow biography that my grandma bought me, and I haven't had a huge fire under my butt about that so: positive effects.
Also, Mitch, if you're reading this, shoutout to what would have been the opening of this review if "this is sloppy historical work" was a joke instead of my actual reaction to this book:
Martha Washington plays a prominent role as a character in this book (did you know they were lifelong friends? That's cute.) but I can't put a lot of credence to any source that talks about an aging Martha Washington without remembering to mention that when she got older she gained a lot of weight and started dressing mostly in pastels. That's clearly the most important part of her story, and neglecting to include it is simply sloppy work.
October 31, 2018
What a disappointment. I was so excited to think that at last there would be a biography of Eliza Hamilton. Nope. This is NOT a biography
February 4, 2019
When a book starts off with the birth and the death dates wrong of some of the most important people in Eliza's life, you know you're not reading quality literature
February 4, 2019
This is fiction - not a biography. The author even wrote the birth years incorrectly on the family tree for Eliza and Anjelica. Do not read. Stick with Chernow.
January 31, 2024
I wish there was more written about this formidable woman.
October 24, 2019
This was a book written in 2018, hot on the tail of the Hamilton craze, written by a professor of English. So while I agree with a majority of the reviews, it is to be expected.
The first full length biography of Eliza is, sadly, a piece of historical fiction. It is imaginative and speculative to a great fault, so much so that I have a hard time trusting anything this author says. Her main argument of the book is that the Reynolds pamphlet was a cover for Alexander's inside trading during the Washington administration. There may be some reason to believe this, based on her ill-cited evidence, but the rest of the book fails to create an atmosphere in which I trust her judgement of Eliza's character or her thoroughness of research.
Throughout the book, instead of receiving facts to make my own judgments, I am pushed to view the people listed through the author's eyes and with her opinions. This is a step beyond taking a murky event and creating a clear narrative for the sake of biography (Chernow does this with the Reynolds scandal, too, a lot of biographers do). Mazzeo straight up calls Angelica spoiled in her own voice, which is a giant misstep.
The book is not carefully fact-checked, either. In the family tree graphic, it lists both Peggy and Phillip Hamilton as dying in 1808. They both died in 1801. Also, she misquotes the musical in her author's note, something that Manuel Miranda's Eliza never said, a misquoted line which she lists as her reason for writing the book. It literally takes a listen on YouTube to confirm this. Yikes.
The benefit of this novel is two-fold: one, that it will hopefully incite a credited historian to write a proper biography, and two, it has made me want to do my own research.
The first full length biography of Eliza is, sadly, a piece of historical fiction. It is imaginative and speculative to a great fault, so much so that I have a hard time trusting anything this author says. Her main argument of the book is that the Reynolds pamphlet was a cover for Alexander's inside trading during the Washington administration. There may be some reason to believe this, based on her ill-cited evidence, but the rest of the book fails to create an atmosphere in which I trust her judgement of Eliza's character or her thoroughness of research.
Throughout the book, instead of receiving facts to make my own judgments, I am pushed to view the people listed through the author's eyes and with her opinions. This is a step beyond taking a murky event and creating a clear narrative for the sake of biography (Chernow does this with the Reynolds scandal, too, a lot of biographers do). Mazzeo straight up calls Angelica spoiled in her own voice, which is a giant misstep.
The book is not carefully fact-checked, either. In the family tree graphic, it lists both Peggy and Phillip Hamilton as dying in 1808. They both died in 1801. Also, she misquotes the musical in her author's note, something that Manuel Miranda's Eliza never said, a misquoted line which she lists as her reason for writing the book. It literally takes a listen on YouTube to confirm this. Yikes.
The benefit of this novel is two-fold: one, that it will hopefully incite a credited historian to write a proper biography, and two, it has made me want to do my own research.
December 20, 2019
I was so excited to read this book, because I like many others, have been completely swept up in the Hamilton fever following the popularity of the musical and I love reading about the strong women of history (who are often ignored). Unfortunately, this book didn't do anything for me. For one thing, Mazzeo couldn't seem to decide what she was writing. It's supposed to be a biography, but she often switched into an historical fiction style, attributing thoughts/words/actions to the subjects that couldn't possibly be verified. That in and of itself isn't enough to make me put a book down, so I kept reading, but that was only one of the disappointing things about this book. Another thing that struck me as odd is that considering it's supposed to be a biography of Eliza, Mazzeo spent a lot of time focused on other people. I know there isn't a ton of source material on Eliza, but the fact that the 55 years she lived after Alexander died barely got any page time at all (decades when she was super active doing all sorts of amazing things) was disappointing. I also didn't love all the time Mazzeo spent on the Reynolds affair. She has a theory (that is definitely not widely held) and spends so much of the book trying to prove her theory, without any really credible proof to back it up, just that she (the author) can't believe that the Eliza she knew would behave the way she did in the wake of the Reynolds affair. Basically, this is an historical fiction book masquerading as a biography about how much Eliza loved Alexander and that is the sum total of her life. Eliza deserves better, and I look forward to the day when an historian puts out a truly well-researched and well-written biography of this amazing lady.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy.
January 7, 2019
I enjoyed this book, but it read as much like a fictionalized account of someone's life as an actual biography, maybe more so. There were many scenes in which Eliza's (and Alexander's) inner thoughts or physical reactions, like blushing or calmly sighing, were stated as fact-- though they couldn't have been known.
The author used a lot of mixed language when talking about enslaved people, some of which does justice to the lives those people were living against their will, but much of which continues to white-wash that part of our history. I expect more out of a book written in 2018.
I'm also incredibly disappointed with how little of this book (the last ~50 pages) was dedicated to the 50+ years that Eliza lived after Alexander Hamilton died. She lived far more of her life without him than with him, and she did some pretty incredible things during that time.
Nonetheless, I understand that Eliza left little original source material and that no one else bothered to keep archives on 18th & 19th-century women. Despite its flaws, this is an enjoyable and interesting read that I'd probably have rated much higher if it was sold as historical fiction instead of a biography.
The author used a lot of mixed language when talking about enslaved people, some of which does justice to the lives those people were living against their will, but much of which continues to white-wash that part of our history. I expect more out of a book written in 2018.
I'm also incredibly disappointed with how little of this book (the last ~50 pages) was dedicated to the 50+ years that Eliza lived after Alexander Hamilton died. She lived far more of her life without him than with him, and she did some pretty incredible things during that time.
Nonetheless, I understand that Eliza left little original source material and that no one else bothered to keep archives on 18th & 19th-century women. Despite its flaws, this is an enjoyable and interesting read that I'd probably have rated much higher if it was sold as historical fiction instead of a biography.
October 10, 2018
It’s a quick read but you quickly tell that the author makes up for the lack of source material on Eliza by filling in the blanks herself. While it’s nice to have the perspective of Eliza and what was going on at home for Alexander there are many times where the read has to ask “how would this author know that?” This would be fine except for her main theory on the Reynolds Pamphlet. This argument is poorly made and relies solely on interpreting Eliza’s behavior instead of attempting to make an argument based on the texts. It’s then treated as undisputed fact for the rest of the book, to great annoyance.
March 25, 2019
I take a lot of issues with this book. The biggest issue I have with this book is that the author couldn't seem to decide if it's a biography or historical fiction. A lot of the assumptions about Eliza's feelings didn't seem to be founded on anything. She also didn't seem to do any research because some information I could dispute with a quick google search and everything that she cited were all letters and nothing else.
The author can write, I'll give her that but it shouldn't be classified as a biography. It's not one.
The author can write, I'll give her that but it shouldn't be classified as a biography. It's not one.
December 18, 2020
I truly enjoyed this book. It is well written and I felt like I was right there with Eliza.
Eliza outlived Alexander by 50 years! Well into her 90s. Amazing for the time. Even if you have read bios on Alexander Hamilton this is still very readable. It is the same history but from a different viewpoint.
I did feel the author used a little too much artistic license with the private thoughts and possible action of Eliza. Maybe a romantic at heart, not always a bad thing.
Eliza outlived Alexander by 50 years! Well into her 90s. Amazing for the time. Even if you have read bios on Alexander Hamilton this is still very readable. It is the same history but from a different viewpoint.
I did feel the author used a little too much artistic license with the private thoughts and possible action of Eliza. Maybe a romantic at heart, not always a bad thing.
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