Historians on Hamilton

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 Snake, as well as the expository books Founding Finance and Inventing American History. His essays have appeared in the Boston Review, the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Oxford American, and Best American Music Writing. He blogs at williamhogeland.com. Lyra D. Monteiro is an assistant professor of history and teaches in the Graduate Program in American Studies at Rutgers University— Newark. She has published on issues in cultural heritage and archaeological ethics and is the codirector of the Museum On Site, a public humanities organization.   Michael O’Malley is a professor of history at George Mason University. He is the author of Keeping Watch: A History of American Time and Face Value: The Entwined Histories of Race and Money in America.   Jeffrey L. Pasley is a professor of history and the associate director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri. His most recent book is The First Presidential Contest: The Election of 1796 and the Beginnings of American Democracy, a finalist for the 2014 George Washington Book Prize.   Claire Bond Potter is a professor of history at The New School. She is the author of War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture and coeditor of the collection Doing Recent History: On Privacy, Copyright, Video Games, Institutional Review Boards, Activist Scholarship, and History that Talks Back. She is the executive editor of Public Seminar. Her essays have appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dissent, the Washington Post, Inside Higher Education, berfrois, and Jacobin.   Renee C. Romano is the Robert S. Danforth Professor of History and Professor of Comparative American Studies and Africana Studies at Oberlin College. She is the author of Race Mixing: Black– White Marriage in Postwar America and Racial Reckoning: Prosecuting America’s Civil Rights Murders, as well as coeditor of the collections The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory and Doing Recent History: On Privacy, Copyright, Video Games, Institutional Review Boards, Activist Scholarship, and History That Talks Back.   Andrew M. Schocket is a professor of history and American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He is the author of Fighting Over the Founders: How We Remember the American Revolution and Founding Corporate Power in Early National Philadelphia. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post,the San Francisco Chronicle, History News Network, and Salon.   David Waldstreicher is Distinguished Professor of History at CUNY Graduate Center, and the author of Slavery’s Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification; Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution; and In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776–1820. As an editor, his books include John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery: Selections from the Diary; A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams; A Companion to Benjamin Franklin; and Beyond the Founders.   Elizabeth L. Wollman is associate professor of music at Baruch College, CUNY, and a member of the doctoral faculty in the Theater Department at CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, From “Hair” to “Hedwig”; Hard Times: The Adult Musical in 1970s New York City; and the forthcoming The Critical Companion to the American Stage Musical. 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 Snake, as well as the expository books Founding Finance and Inventing American History. His essays have appeared in the Boston Review, the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Oxford American, and Best American Music Writing. He blogs at williamhogeland.com. Lyra D. Monteiro is an assistant professor of history and teaches in the Graduate Program in American Studies at Rutgers University— Newark. She has published on issues in cultural heritage and archaeological ethics and is the codirector of the Museum On Site, a public humanities organization.   Michael O’Malley is a professor of history at George Mason University. He is the author of Keeping Watch: A History of American Time and Face Value: The Entwined Histories of Race and Money in America.   Jeffrey L. Pasley is a professor of history and the associate director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri. His most recent book is The First Presidential Contest: The Election of 1796 and the Beginnings of American Democracy, a finalist for the 2014 George Washington Book Prize.   Claire Bond Potter is a professor of history at The New School. She is the author of War on Crime: Bandits, G-Men, and the Politics of Mass Culture and coeditor of the collection Doing Recent History: On Privacy, Copyright, Video Games, Institutional Review Boards, Activist Scholarship, and History that Talks Back. She is the executive editor of Public Seminar. Her essays have appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, Dissent, the Washington Post, Inside Higher Education, berfrois, and Jacobin.   Renee C. Romano is the Robert S. Danforth Professor of History and Professor of Comparative American Studies and Africana Studies at Oberlin College. She is the author of Race Mixing: Black– White Marriage in Postwar America and Racial Reckoning: Prosecuting America’s Civil Rights Murders, as well as coeditor of the collections The Civil Rights Movement in American Memory and Doing Recent History: On Privacy, Copyright, Video Games, Institutional Review Boards, Activist Scholarship, and History That Talks Back.   Andrew M. Schocket is a professor of history and American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He is the author of Fighting Over the Founders: How We Remember the American Revolution and Founding Corporate Power in Early National Philadelphia. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post,the San Francisco Chronicle, History News Network, and Salon.   David Waldstreicher is Distinguished Professor of History at CUNY Graduate Center, and the author of Slavery’s Constitution: From Revolution to Ratification; Runaway America: Benjamin Franklin, Slavery, and the American Revolution; and In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776–1820. As an editor, his books include John Quincy Adams and the Politics of Slavery: Selections from the Diary; A Companion to John Adams and John Quincy Adams; A Companion to Benjamin Franklin; and Beyond the Founders.   Elizabeth L. Wollman is associate professor of music at Baruch College, CUNY, and a member of the doctoral faculty in the Theater Department at CUNY Graduate Center. She is the author of The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, From “Hair” to “Hedwig”; Hard Times: The Adult Musical in 1970s New York City; and the forthcoming The Critical Companion to the American Stage Musical.

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