Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical Is Restaging America\ s Past

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.

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.