Week 11: From “Hamilton’s America” – Political Entertainment

In the PBS documentary “Hamilton’s America,” this documentary talks about the life and struggles of Alexander Hamilton during the pre-production of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton: An American Musical.” This documentary, I believe, shows a perspective about Alexander Hamilton that would not necessarily be shown in the form of political entertainment in the vain like Real Time with Bill Maher where every politician like Hamilton would be dissected for political knowledge and for political entertainment.

Before watching this documentary, I had heard about this musical when Lin-Manuel Miranda plugged it on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Before watching this, I had some knowledge to almost the same extent that Matt had, but I knew that he played in huge roles in the formation of the early years of the United States. He is important in American History because he served as the First Secretary of the Treasury under George Washington’s administration, the influence he had in the writing of The Constitution of the United States, and being one of the most important Founding Father of this nation.

This documentary showed the life that Alexander Hamilton had to experience in order to become the figurehead that he is in American History. In a sense, he lived and experienced the American Dream before the concept of the “American Dream” even became a concept that modern day Americans would experience. Hamilton lived the American Dream because he started with almost nothing, got an education, and became an influence in the founding documents of this nation.