History is Happening: A Reader’s Advisory for the Hamilton Fan

Everyone has caught Founding Fathers fever with the overwhelming popularity of the musical Hamilton. Not only is it currently playing to sold out crowds on Broadway, and coming to Chicago this September, but it’s winning accolades left and right from the Pulitzer Prize for Drama to the Tony Award for Best Musical. The UGL can help you explore even more about the time and people from the smash musical. What’s our name? Undergraduate Library!

 

Hamilton Advisory

There’s a million books you haven’t read…just you wait!

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

What better place to start than the book that inspired the musical? Chernow, who also penned books about the Morgan family and John D Rockefeller, uses his skills as a historian to shed light on yet another figure central to American finance. Alexander Hamilton seeks not only to recast a monumentally misunderstood figure in American history, but to explore his relationship to the American Revolutionary War and the mythic figures who emerged from it. Come for the musical inspiration, stay for the amazing history lesson.

 

John Adams by David McCullough

John Adams by David McCullough

John Adams by David McCullough

Much like Chernow’s book about Hamilton, David McCullough’s book about John Adams also inspired an adaptation–this time as an HBO miniseries. McCullough has written about many influential American historical figures. This 2002 biography of the second president won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography. McCullough not only examines the public and political life of Adams, but the personal and private as well. Read the book and then check out the miniseries starring Paul Giamatti, both available at the UGL!

 

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts

Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts

Much has been said about the men who wrote the Federalist Papers, battled the British, or founded our nation, but the women in their lives have barely been mentioned. Just as Lin-Manuel Miranda shoves the Schuyler sisters out of relative public obscurity, journalist Cokie Roberts includes women in the sequel, and brings to light the influences that these mothers, sisters, and daughters had on the founding of our nation. Roberts includes Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Read Franklin, Eliza Pinckney, Catherine Littlefield Green, Esther DeBerdt Reed, and Martha Washington, many of whom are never included in a school textbook, but have used their courage, pluck, sadness, joy, energy, grace, and sensitivity to manage their businesses, raise their children, provide their husbands with political advice, and WORK!

 

Burr by Gore Vidal

Burr by Gore Vidal- (Image from Amazon.com)

Burr by Gore Vidal

If you like heroes a little on the controversial side, try Burr by Gore Vidal! Vidal’s historical novel shows the Burr-Hamilton feud in a new light with Burr as our anti-hero of the story who reflects on his experience thirty years after Hamilton was killed. Burr will give you a new lens through which to view your favorite Hamilton characters.

 

The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss

The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss

The Whiskey Rebels by David Liss

Alexander Hamilton is only one of many stars of this historical fiction novel by David Liss. The Whiskey Rebels follows former Revolutionary spy as he serves Alexander Hamilton in the midst of the Jefferson-Hamilton rivalry over the national bank and a woman who distills whiskey in order to move west. As Hamilton’s circle closes in on whiskey and its profits, these two main characters each prepare for a patriotic fight.

Brookland by Emily Barton

Brookland by Emily Barton

Brookland by Emily Barton

This historical fiction novel set in New York during the revolution, steps away from the war and into the sights and smells of 18th century Brooklyn. After inheriting a gin distillery from her father, Prue makes a big promise to the residents of Brooklyn: she’s going to build a bridge from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Barton’s highly praised second novel places you in “the room where it happens” but in a completely different context.

We hope we were writing like we had plenty of time…but if we missed anything, let us know! Check out our Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram pages.

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July Events

The Fourth of July is over, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the month has to be a dud! We’re still open during our summer hours, but after we close, you don’t have to go home.

Photo Courtesy of UGL Media Commons

Photo Courtesy of UGL Media Commons

Photo Courtesy of Urbana Park District

Photo Courtesy of Urbana Park District

Free Yoga in the Park – Meadowbrook Park, Saturdays 9-10am from June 13-August 29

Get active this summer every Saturday with free yoga in Meadowbrook Park! Instructors provide modifications so you can practice at your own level. Bring a mat if you have one; only a few loaner mats are available.

Photo Courtesy of The Land Connection

Photo Courtesy of The Land Connection

Champaign Farmer’s Market – Tuesdays 4-7pm from May-October

For those who aren’t up early enough to do the Urbana Market in the Square Saturdays 9am-noon, Champaign offers an evening option. Stop by at the parking lot right outside of Big Grove Tavern and Kofusion in downtown Champaign to get fresh produce once a week.

Photo Courtesy of Champaign Park District

Photo Courtesy of Champaign Park District

StreetFest – Downtown Champaign, July 16 7pm-Midnight

If you missed StreetFest in June, or you just couldn’t get enough and want to go back, StreetFest is back on July 16 with a new band line-up. Channel your inner child with face painting, balloon animals, and sidewalk chalk or stop by the TCBY and Snack Shack food trucks.

Photo Courtesy of Illini Bands

Photo Courtesy of Illini Bands

Illini Summer Band Concert – Quad, July 21 7pm

For those who enjoy different music than StreetFest has to offer, the Illini Summer band will be performing on the Quad in the evening on Thursday, July 21. This free concert features music by Sousa, Khachaturian, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and more.

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