The volume is a collection of scholarly essays and personal responses that contextualizes
Hamilton: An American Musical
in various frameworks: hip-hop theatre and history, American history, musicals, contemporary politics, queer theory, feminism, and more.
Hamilton
is arguably the most important piece of American theatre in 25 years in terms of both national impact and shaping influence on American theatre. It is part of a larger history of American theatre that reframes the United States and shows the nation its face in a manner not before seen but that is resolutely true.
With essays from a number of scholars, artists, political scientists, and historians, the book engages with generational differences in response to the play, transformations of the perception of the musical between the Obama and Trump administrations, youth culture, color-conscious casting, feminist critiques, comparisons with
black-ish, The Mountaintop, Assassins
, and
In the Heights
, as well as
's place in hip hop theatre.