It’s the most thorough history lesson I have had in quite some time.
How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a
Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten
Spot in the Caribbean by Providence, impoverished, in squalor
Grow up to be a hero and a scholar?
Those are the opening lines of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton: An American Musical and, admittedly, they are more compelling in the hip-hop cadence of the Broadway musical than on the printed page. But the point is that the musical biography of Alexander Hamilton has taken Broadway by storm while its soundtrack has taken over my iPod.
Broadway musicals rarely connect with popular culture; they even less frequently provide a history lesson about a lesser-known figure from the nation’s founding. Hamilton, after all, is an afterthought when compared with George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, yet he played a crucial role during the Revolutionary War, was a supporter of the fledgling U.S. Constitution, and as the first Secretary of the Treasury founded the nation’s financial system. Add in the fact that Hamilton was mortally wounded in a duel against Aaron Burr, who was the sitting vice-president of the United States at the time, and it makes for a compelling life story.
All of this plays out over nearly 2 1/2 hours of the soundtrack, which Miranda was inspired to write upon reading Ron Chernow’s 2004 biography of Hamilton. Chernow served as a consultant on the lyrics out of Miranda’s desire to facilitate historical accuracy.
This history is one of many interesting aspects of Hamilton. And that led David Davenport to write for Forbes: “Sadly, however, Americans have a better chance of getting a hot ticket to the musical than leaving high school or college with any knowledge about Alexander Hamilton or his role in American history. … The latest NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) test results from spring 2015 showed that only 18 percent of eighth-grade students were ‘proficient’ or better in history, and only 23 percent in civics or government.” Davenport also noted a 2012 Xavier University study that found one-third of Americans could pass the civics portion of the U.S. citizenship test, while the pass rate for immigrants is 97.5 percent.
