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5 stars despite a grindingly slow start Yes, five stars, but if it weren't for my inclination that there was a great story in Alexander Hamilton, I would have put the 800 page tome down after 100 pages. So if you start reading this book, just persist and you will be rewarded. Hamilton rules. Just look at his mug on a $10 bill! The first 100-150 pages went very slow. Chernow seemed pretentious and wordy. In retrospect, this may have been because Hamilton's early life growing up in the Carribean was very poorly documented and Hamilton almost never talked about it, so Chernow tries to fill it in the gaps with his own two cents. When ever Chernow does this I got the feeling that the quality of information nose dived. Like I said, Chernow shows us why Hamilton was a god, and once Chernow gets to the point in Hamilton's life where he is a student at Columbia University and then immediately becomes a twenty-something right hand man to the leader of the Revolution (Washington) the book is excellent. Chernow's writing style takes a little time to get used to. I had a difficult time initially, but once the story got going, the writing, I felt, was very polished (make sure to keep a dictionary along side you!). The length of the book gives him plenty of time to quote source material and spin a story or just give the story's gorey details, and after the first 100 or so pages it is a pleasure to read. Lastly, please beware that after reading this book you will become a rabid Hamilton admirer. Jefferson, who I thought had a pretty good rep (I'm just getting interested in reading about the founding of the US), comes out looking like a total jerk. It becomes hard to imagine how Jefferson got his face on a nickel.