Chernow identifies his motivation for this book in the prologue, where he presents Hamilton's widow, Eliza, in her mid-90s, having outlived Hamilton by fifty years or so. Eliza as we discovered, had uncovered an abundance of material, and had left it to her children to recount the full story so that “Justice shall be done to the memory of my Hamilton” (Chernow 3). But since the full story had not been told, Chernow set out to tell it. Again from Chernow's prologue, we see a sign of the broadness and profundity of Hamilton's life and work: “The magnitude of Hamilton’s feats as treasury secretary has overshadowed many other facets of his life: clerk, college student, youthful poet, essayist, artillery captain, wartime adjutant to Washington, battlefield hero, congressman, abolitionist, Bank of New York founder, state assemblyman, member of the Constitutional Convention and New York Ratifying Convention, orator, lawyer, polemicist, educator, patron saint of…show more content… He was a pivotal force in four consecutive presidential elections and defined much of America’s political agenda during the Washington and Adams administrations, leaving copious commentary on virtually every salient issue of the day.” (Chernow 5). Readers can identify from this passage that Alexander Hamilton was a man who would take up any political position, if the end game implies the progression of his beloved nation. Likewise we remark that his occupation as the first treasury secretary was so important to the point that his other life achievements were not viewed as significant. At this point in the story, we could either sympathize with Hamilton, in not receiving the praise he should in accomplishing what he did for his country at the expense of his life and family, or glorify him for creating a financial framework that approached
