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Why We’ll Never Stop Arguing About Hamilton

Hamilton is an impossibly slippery text. The arguments over the show are part of what make it great.

In "The Haunting of Lin-Manuel Miranda," Ishmael Reed Revives an Old Debate

If “Hamilton” is subversive, the mischievous Reed asks, what is it subverting?

The Issue on the Table: Is 'Hamilton' Good for History?

In a new book, top historians discuss the musical’s educational value, historical accuracy and racial revisionism.
Lin Manuel Miranda and fellow actor dressed in colonial era clothing

How to Love Problematic Pop Culture

Revisiting the contradictions in "Hamilton" – and in the pushback to criticisms of the beloved musical.

Alexander Hamilton: Statesman, Dueler, Birthday Party Theme

Projected to earn $1 billion and earning Tony-Award glory, 'Hamilton' the musical is still going strong in backyards and classrooms across the country.

Let’s Not Pretend That ‘Hamilton’ Is History

America's founders have never enjoyed more sex appeal, but the hit Musical cheats audiences by making democracy look easy
Alexander Hamilton

The Hamilton Hustle

Why liberals have embraced our most dangerously reactionary founder.
Portrait of Alexander Hamilton

The Hamilton Cult

Has the celebrated musical eclipsed the man himself?
Lin-Manuel Miranda, center, and the cast of "Hamilton" at the Richard Rodgers Theater.

Father Worship

Hamilton is less a new vision of the past than a translation of the sacred stories of American civil religion into the vernacular.

A Hamilton Skeptic on Why the Show Isn’t As Revolutionary As It Seems

"It's still white history. And no amount of casting people of color disguises the fact that they're erasing people of color from the actual narrative."

Liberals Love Alexander Hamilton. But Aaron Burr Was a Real Progressive Hero.

Why Broadway's biggest villain is worth a second look.

Who Tells America's Story? 'Hamilton,' Hip-Hop, and Me

How the hit musical allows those who have been left out of the story to claim the narrative of America as their own.
Collage of popular culture references from 2008 onward.

That Feeling You Recognize? Obamacore.

The 2008 election sparked an outburst of brightness and positivity across pop culture. Now hindsight — and cringe — is setting in.
A map showing the path of the 1772 hurricane through the Caribbean.

Inside the Hurricane That Drove Alexander Hamilton to America

The young Founder’s evocative account of the tempest inspired people to send him to the Colonies for a formal education.
Daveed Diggs and Lin Manuel Miranda on stage in the musical Hamilton.

Notes Toward an Essay on Imagining Thomas Jefferson Watching a Performance of the Musical "Hamilton"

"But he'd have to acknowledge that the soul of his country is southern; the soul of his country is black."

Unrevolutionary Bastardy

A review of a "The Low Road," a “mordantly anti-Hamiltonian” play that made its debut at New York's Public Theater this spring.

How the ‘Hamilton Effect’ Distorts the Founders

Too often, we look to history not to understand it, but to seek out confirmation for our preexisting beliefs. That’s a problem.
Protestors use the celebrated Hamilton lyric, “Immigrants: We Get the Job Done” to protest the first inauguration of President Donald Trump.

“The Premise of Our Founding”: Immigration and Popular Mythmaking

On the tension between celebratory rhetoric and restrictive policy surrounding immigration.
Artistic depiction of Suffragettes demonstrating for women's right to vote. At bottom left, a woman with a cap holds an old fashioned megaphone in her hands. At right, three women (in black and white) can be seen talking with one another. One is holding a piece of paper in her hands.

A “Hamilton” for the Suffrage Movement

Shaina Taub’s new musical follows Alice Paul’s tireless quest to win American women the vote.

Remembered for the Wrong Reason?

Which personality of the American Revolution or the founding era is remembered for the wrong reasons, and why?
Book cover for Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Chernow Gonna Chernow

A Pulitzer Prize winner punches down.
Jessica Serifilippi inside the Schuyler Mansion

Schuyler Mansion Works to Bring Clarity to Alexander Hamilton’s Role as Enslaver

Throughout his career, Hamilton acted as a middleman for his family and friends to purchase enslaved people.
Cast of the musical Hamilton, on the stage for curtain call
partner

Hamilton and the Unsung Labors of Wives

Who tells our stories has always mattered.
A pen and ink portrait of Alexander Hamilton as Treasury Secretary.

A New Hamilton Book Looks to Reclaim His Vision for the Left

In “Radical Hamilton,” Christian Parenti argues that the left should use Alexander Hamilton’s mythologized status to drive home his full agenda.

History Won’t Save Us

Why the battle for history must be won in the here and now.
Poster from the WPA Federal Theatre Project promoting "The Case of Philip Lawrence"

Making Theatre Dangerous Again

In segregated units set up under the Federal Theatre Project, African American artists took on work usually reserved for whites and wrote radical dramas.

Even the Founding Fathers Couldn’t Envision a President Like Trump

Reflections on Alexander Hamilton, Alexis de Tocqueville, and the power of the presidency.

Historical Fanfiction as Affective History Making

How online fandoms are allowing people to find themselves in the narrative.

Aaron Burr — Villain of ‘Hamilton’ — Had a Secret Family of Color, New Research Shows

The vice president is best known for killing rival Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 duel. But he was also a notorious rake, historians say.

Oklahoma Was Never Really O.K.

A new production exposes the darkness that’s always been at the heart of the musical — and the American experiment.

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