Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical Is Restaging America's Past, Paperback/Renee C. Romano

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. About the Author RENEE C. ROMANO is the Robert S. Danforth Professor of History at Oberlin College in Ohio. She is the author or coeditor of many books, including Racial Reckoning: Prosecuting America's Civil Rights Murders . CLAIRE BOND POTTER is a professor of history and the executive editor of Public Seminar at The New School in New York. She is the author or coeditor of several books, including War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture (Rutgers University Press). About the contributors: Joseph M. Adelman is an assistant professor of history at Framingham State University in Massachusetts. A historian of media, communication, and politics in the Atlantic world, he is currently working on a book about the circulation of political news during the American Revolution and the history of the U.S. Post Office. Catherine Allgor is the president of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston, Massachusetts. She is the author of several books about women and politics in the founding era, including A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation. Jim Cullen is a history teacher at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City. He is the author of numerous books, among them The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation and Sensing the Past: Hollywood Stars and Historical Visions. Joanne B. Freeman is a professor of history and American Studies at Yale University, specializing in the politics and political culture of Revolutionary and early national America. An elected fellow of the Society of American Historians and an advisor to the National Park Service, she is the editor of The Essential Hamilton and Hamilton: Writings; and the author of Affairs of Honor: National Politics in the New Republic, which won the Best Book award from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic. She is currently completing a study of physical violence in the U.S. Congress. Leslie M. Harris is a professor of history at Northwestern University. She is the author of In the Shadow of Slavery: African Americans in New York City, 1626-1863; and coeditor with Ira Berlin of Slavery in New York, which accompanied the groundbreaking 2005- 2007 New-York Historical Society exhibition of the same name. Brian Eugenio Herrera is an assistant professor of theater in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University. He is the author of The Latina/o Theatre Commons 2013 National Convening: A Narrative Report and Latin Numbers: Playing Latino in Twentieth- Century U.S. Popular Performance, which was awarded the George Jean Nathan Prize for Dramatic Criticism and received an Honorable Mention for the John W. Frick Book Award from the American Theatre and Drama Society. Patricia Herrera is an associate professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Richmond, focusing on U.S. Latinx visual art, performance, and museum exhibitions. She is also an artist, performer, and educator who uses theater to promote social justice. She is the author of Nuyorican Feminist Performance: From the Nuyorican Poets Cafe to Hip Hop Theater. William Hogeland is the author of three narrative histories of the founding period, The Whiskey Rebellion, Declaration, and Autumn of the Black S