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Topic is Hamilton, Washington, and America’s birth
Ron Chernow will deliver a talk entitled “Intertwined Lives: Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and the Birth of the American Republic” at 4:15 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, at the Williams Center for the Arts.
“From the time that Alexander Hamilton became aide-de-camp to George Washington during the early years of the Revolutionary War, their remarkable careers proved inseparable,” Chernow says. “This remarkable relationship was, arguably, the most productive partnership in the early years of the republic, surpassing even that between Madison and Jefferson. The lecture will explore the complementary talents that made this relationship so fruitful, while also probing some of the subtle tensions and personality differences that could periodically make it a combustible affair.”
The event is free and open to the public. It is the second lecture in the “Lives of Liberty” series, part of the College’s yearlong celebration of the 250th anniversary of the birth of the Marquis de Lafayette.
A web site dedicated to the celebration and to the Marquis’ unique connection to the College provides information and updates.
Called “America’s best business biographer” by Fortune magazine, Chernow is an author, journalist, lecturer, and television and radio commentator.
His most recent book, Alexander Hamilton (2004), was the first recipient of the new George Washington Book Prize in 2005, which at $50,000 is one of the largest book awards in the nation. Alexander Hamilton was also named one of 2004’s Ten Best Books by the New York Times and BusinessWeek.
His first book, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance (1990), won the National Book Award for Nonfiction. In 1999, the Modern Library selected The House of Morgan as one of the 100 best nonfiction books published in the 20th century.
Chernow’s other publications are The Warburgs (1994); The Death of the Banker: The Decline and Fall of the Great Financial Dynasties and the Triumph of the Small Investor (1997), and Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1998), which spent 16 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list.
Chernow is a frequent contributor to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and a familiar figure on national radio and television shows, with appearances on Today, NBC Nightly News, Nightline, World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, CBS Evening News, Charlie Rose, The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, C-Span, CNN, Fox News, CNBC, the History Channel and National Public Radio.
Chernow has lectured at the National Archives, the Library of Congress, and the United States Treasury Department. He has degrees in English literature from Yale and Cambridge universities.