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. These short and lively essays examine why Hamilton became an Obama-era sensation and consider its continued relevance in the age of Trump.

Chronology Introduction: History is Happening in New York - Renee C. Romano and Claire Bond Potter Act I: The Script  Chapter 1: From Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton to Hamilton: An American Musical  - William Hogeland Chapter 2: "Can We Get Back to Politics? Please?" Hamilton's Missing Politics in Hamilton - Joanne B. Freeman Chapter 3: Race-Conscious Casting and the Erasure of the Black Past in Hamilton - Lyra D. Monteiro Chapter 4: The Greatest City in the World? Slavery in New York in the Age of Hamilton - Leslie M. Harris Chapter 5: “Remember….I’m Your Man”: Masculinity, Marriage, and Gender in Hamilton - Catherine Allgor Act II: The Stage Chapter 6: “The Ten Dollar Founding Father”: Hamilton, Money and Federal Power - Michael O’Malley Chapter 7: Hamilton as Founders Chic: A Neo-Federalist, Antislavery, Usable Past? - David Waldstreicher and Jeffrey L. Pasley Chapter 8: Hamilton and the American Revolution on Stage and Screen - Andrew M. Schocket Chapter 9: From The Black Crook to Hamilton: A Brief History of Hot Tickets on Broadway - Elizabeth L. Wollman Chapter 10: Looking at Hamilton from Inside the Broadway Bubble - Brian Eugenio Herrera Act III: The Audience Chapter 11: Mind the Gap: Teaching Hamilton - Jim Cullen Chapter 12: Who Tells Your Story: Hamilton as a People’s History - Joseph M. Adelman Chapter 13: Reckoning with America’s Racial Past, Present, and Future in Hamilton - Patricia Herrera Chapter 14: Hamilton: A New American Civic Myth by Renee C. Romano Chapter 15: Safe in the Nation We’ve Made: Staging Hamilton on Social Media - Claire Bond Potter Sample Syllabus Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors Index