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Hamilton: the musical that launched a thousand history buffs
from Issue 15
Hamilton: the musical that launched a thousand history buffs
By EMILY CROWE
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Staff Writer
A philosophy major, an accounting major, a history major and a biology major walk into a bar. This might sound like the beginning of a bad joke, but it actually describes my friend group that is obsessed with “Hamilton: An American Musical.”
What makes “Hamilton” so attractive to so many people with dramatically different personalities and backgrounds? This is a question that I was going to answer in my Honors Thesis, but in order to save the sanity of Dr. Burch, I’ll just try to answer it in this article.
Some might look at Hamilton and argue that it is appealing to such a diverse group of devotees because it offers so many different things: it has hip-hop, rap battles, lyrical ballads and so much more – all while teaching the viewer or listener a little more about American history.
Others might argue that Hamilton draws in so many because of its subject matter: Alexander Hamilton is an interesting guy. Built the basis of the financial system we still have today, published a pamphlet describing his torrid affair with Mariah Reynolds and died in a duel.
A “Hamilton” playbill.
Source: Flickr the history is fascinating
Yet others offer the thought that Hamilton is enjoyed by many because it tells the American Dream from a slightly different perspective. The bastard child of a man who left his family because of crushing debt and a woman who died when Alexander was only twelve years old, he came to America, went to college and contributed greatly to the founding of our nation.
I argue that it is some combination of all of these things. The music is amazing (Hit me up if you need someone to rap “Guns and Ships” perfectly),
The history is fascinating. (I am a history major, after all) and it builds on a narrative as old as Alexander himself.
At one point Alexander asks “What is a legacy?” A musical that can help a philosophy major and an accounting major be friends? Now that’s a legacy.
