Historians on Hamilton : how a blockbuster musical is restaging America's past

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Title:

Historians on Hamilton : how a blockbuster musical is restaging America's past

Author:

Romano, Renee Christine editor.

ISBN:

9780813590301

9780813590295

Physical Description:

399 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 22 cm

General Note:

Source of cataloging data: WCP

Contents:

Introduction: History Is Happening in Manhattan / From Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton to Hamilton: An American Musical / "Can We Get Back to Politics? Please": Hamilton's Missing Politics in Hamilton / Race-Conscious Casting and the Erasure of the Black Past in Hamilton / The Greatest City in the World?: Slavery in New York in the Age of Hamilton / "Remember... I'm Your Man": Masculinity, Marriage, and Gender in Hamilton / "The Ten-Dollar Founding Father": Hamilton, Money, and Federal Power / Hamilton as Founders Chic: A Neo-Federalist, Antislavery Usable Past? / Hamilton and the American Revolution on Stage and Screen / From The Black Crook to Hamilton: A Brief History of Hot Tickets on Broadway / Looking at Hamilton from Inside the Broadway Bubble / Mind the Gap: Teaching Hamilton / Reckoning with America's Racial Past, Present, and Future in Hamilton / Who Tells Your Story?: Hamilton as a People's History / Hamilton: A New American Civic Myth / "Safe in the Nation We've Made?": Staging Hamilton on Social Media

Added Author:

Romano, Renee Christine

Potter, Claire Bond, 1958-

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
Searching... Sugar Grove - Todd Library	Book	ML410 .M67976 H57 2018	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

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Summary

America has gone Hamilton crazy. Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony-winning musical has spawned sold-out performances, a triple platinum cast album, and a score so catchy that it is being used to teach U.S. history in classrooms across the country. But just how historically accurate is Hamilton ? And how is the show itself making history?

Historians on Hamilton brings together a collection of top scholars to explain the Hamilton phenomenon and explore what it might mean for our understanding of America's history. The contributors examine what the musical got right, what it got wrong, and why it matters. Does Hamilton 's hip-hop take on the Founding Fathers misrepresent our nation's past, or does it offer a bold positive vision for our nation's future? Can a musical so unabashedly contemporary and deliberately anachronistic still communicate historical truths about American culture and politics? And is Hamilton as revolutionary as its creators and many commentators claim?

Perfect for students, teachers, theatre fans, hip-hop heads, and history buffs alike, these short and lively essays examine why Hamilton became an Obama-era sensation and consider its continued relevance in the age of Trump. Whether you are a fan or a skeptic, you will come away from this collection with a new appreciation for the meaning and importance of the Hamilton phenomenon.

Reviews (2)

Choice Review

Historians Romano (Oberlin) and Potter (New School) have produced an outstanding resource on the musical Hamilton, which debuted off-Broadway in 2015 and then moved to Broadway in 2016 to become the top-grossing musical in Broadway history, getting 16 Tony nominations and winning 11, including Best Musical, Best Score, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Director. The collection is divided into three parts: "The Script," "The Stage," and "The Audience." What is noteworthy is Hamilton's far-reaching effect via social media; youth and boomers alike have embraced what social historians have termed "founders chic." Several historians have pointed out the high points of Hamilton--that a major production can be dominated by directors, producers, and actors predominantly of color and still show a basic weakness in the fact that these actors are portraying white men. And Hamilton downplays the fact that the Founders were predominantly slave owners and wealthy men. Nonetheless, the consensus is that Hamilton revolutionized the Broadway musical as a historical element, and reflects a new wave of history that successfully reaches the younger generation. Thus historical detail such as color and emphasis on slavery pale in the reflection of Hamilton's singular accomplishments. The book takes a unique and revolutionary approach in bringing Hamilton to life. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Andrew Mark Mayer, College of Staten Island

Library Journal Review

If you think there is nothing more to say about one of the most popular and highly lauded musicals in American theater history, read this work and you'll know you're mistaken. Romano (Robert S. Danforth Professor of History, Oberlin Coll.; Racial Reckoning: Prosecuting America's Civil Rights Murders) and Potter (history, The New Sch.; coeditor, War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men and the Politics of Mass Culture) have assembled a group of scholars who explore the phenomenon that is Hamilton through the lens of politics, history (American and theater), race, gender, and more. Fifteen essays delve into the script (looking at Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton, black history, and slavery in New York during Hamilton's time); the stage ("Hamilton as Founders Chic," the American Revolution on stage and screen, and a brief history of Broadway blockbusters) and the audience (teaching Hamilton, the production as a people's history and on social media). Special features include a course syllabus on "Hamilton: A Musical Inquiry" and a chronology that extends from early American history to the present. VERDICT A thought-provoking and carefully crafted collection of scholarship that has much to offer readers interested in music, theater, or American history.-Carolyn M. Mulac, Chicago © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.