James Alexander Hamilton, son of Alexander, influenced U.S. history, advising leaders and supporting abolition, with personal historical insights.

Born in the year of the Constitutional Convention, James Alexander Hamilton was uniquely positioned to observe the early republic era and the formation of the experimental United States government. His father, Alexander Hamilton, had been the first US Treasury Secretary, an outspoken and controversial character who was killed in a duel when James was a teenager. With a lifelong devotion to his father's memory, James advised men from Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren to Abraham Lincoln and Salmon P Chase on banking and constitutional matters.

Through his own talents and with the advantage of his father's name, James served as temporary Secretary of State and District Attorney of New York. James enjoyed a close-knit family life with his wife, Mary Morris, at his Hudson River home named Nevis for his father's birthplace. He was part of the crew of the yacht America, for which the America's Cup is named, and on the committee for New York's Crystal Palace in 1853. More importantly, he served his country through the War of 1812, Western Expansion, and the bloody Civil War. His first-hand account of these transformative events gives readers a priceless look at America's past. James supported the abolition of slavery and wrote a draft of the Emancipation Proclamation before settling down to write his own Reminiscences that cover the first seventy-five years of US history.

This biography makes James A Hamilton's life and observations accessible to the modern reader and will leave you with a new appreciation for the Founders' heirs who inherited the difficult work of building a nation.

This diverse collection of profiles on women who had an impact on the revolution offers a rare window into the female experience of the burgeoning nation.
Women of the American Revolution explores the trials of war and daily life for women in the United States during the War of Independence. Many names will be familiar, such as Martha Washington who traveled to winter camps to care for her husband and rally the troops, and Abigail Adams who ran the family's farms and raised children during John's long absences. Others are forgotten legends, like the mysterious spy Agent 355, or sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington, who was said to make an all-night ride to rally American forces.

Not all American women served the side of the revolutionaries. Peggy Shippen gambled on the loyalist side and paid severe consequences. From early historian Mercy Otis Warren to Dolley Madison, who defined what it means to be an American First Lady, women of the American Revolution strived to do more than they had previously thought possible during a time of hardship and civil war.