The riveting life of Alexander Hamilton, an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean who overcame all the odds to become George Washington's aide-de-camp and the first Treasury Secretary of the United States. Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated than Alexander Hamilton. In this work, it shows how the political and economic greatness of America today is the result of Hamilton's willingness to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time.