The Hamilton Scheme: An Epic Tale of Money and Power in the American Founding, by William Hogeland, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 544 pages, $35
Over the last two decades, Alexander Hamilton has become a folk hero. In 2004, Ron Chernow's massive Hamilton biography was a bestseller. A decade later, Lin-Manuel Miranda's spectacularly successful Hamilton: An American Musical further heightened the popularity of America's first treasury secretary, despite—or, more likely, because of—its inaccuracies and simplifications. And this year, The New York Times and Bloomberg have run stories titled "There is a Secret Hamiltonian in the White House" and "Industrial Policy and Alexander Hamilton," celebrating President Joe Biden's economic initiatives.
