Thursday, May 02, 2019
Hamilton got a few things wrong. This traveling museum corrects the record
www.fastcompany.com: There’s a powerful scene in the second act of Hamilton in which Aaron Burr is left seething in resentment after Alexander Hamilton refuses to endorse him in the election of 1800, a political slight that ensures Thomas Jefferson’s ascendancy as America’s third president. For Burr, losing the White House is one humiliation too many, the last straw in a lifelong rivalry with Hamilton that he can no longer bear. In response, he challenges Hamilton to a duel.
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2 comments:
I’ve seen a fair number of article pointing out the historical inaccuracies of Hamilton, and I do think it is better to look at Hamilton as historical fiction. That being said, I think this exhibit sounds really cool and I’d really like to see it. With as big of a sensation and Hamilton has become, I think people want to see more, and I like the idea that more would be additional historically accurate information. I feel like inevitably this will also have historically inaccuracies, and it would be impossible for it to not have omissions, so I think people will end up having similar complaints about this. To me one big difference is that this is claiming to be historically accurate in a way that Hamilton never did. Hamilton is entertainment in the end, it was never meant to be educational. Any educational value is more of a side product.
I think this museum is a good idea for educating people who discovered the show and believed it as a historically accurate recreation of the Revolutionary War. I remember in high school studying for the AP US History test and hearing a set of classmates arguing about an event “because Hamilton said this!” and afterwards hearing people talk about how they used knowledge they gained from Hamilton to answer questions. On one hand, it’s great that this show got people interested in history and helped people learn, but there needs to be some wide recognition that it’s more historical fiction than historical fact. I think that the creation of this museum is a great way to correct the record a little bit, and attract people who wouldn’t otherwise be inclined to go to a museum of early American history. I like that it seems to be trying to blend entertainment and learning, although that itself has slightly higher potential for additional historical inaccuracy.
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