Thomas Fleming, Noted Novelist and Historian, Opens Alexander Hamilton Exhibit

The noted novelist and historian Thomas Fleming will come to the Metropolitan Campus in a free lecture on “Alexander Hamilton as a Congressman in the Final Years of the War” on Thursday, October 16, at 2:30 p.m. The opening event in the traveling exhibit, “Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America,” the lecture will be held in the Weiner Library Auditorium.

Fleming is the author of more than 40 books and has been called one of America’s finest writers and historians. He is a frequent guest on and contributor to PBS, NPR, The History Channel, Discovery Channel, A&E and C-SPAN and the only author ever to have selections for the Book-of-the-Month Club in both fiction and nonfiction.

A native of Jersey City, N.J., Fleming is a novelist, historian and biographer of national renown. “We are very pleased to bring Thomas Fleming to FDU in this important lecture,” said James Marcum, University librarian (Metro/Flor). “He is, above all, a masterful historian and a brilliant storyteller who is both riveting and readable.”

Fleming is the author of Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Future of America. The Associated Press noted, “It is impossible not to love this book.” Katherine Whittemore on Salon.com said, “To be as masterfully concise as Fleming manages to be is an achievement in itself, for this epic would have challenged Tolstoi.”

Commenting on his appearance at FDU, Fleming said, “I’m going to emphasize my research on him [Hamilton] as a congressman in the final years of the war. It’s a little known part of his story and very revealing.”

Fleming’s book, Liberty! The American Revolution, was a main selection of the History Book Club and the Book-of-the-Month Club. The History Book Club named it one of the eight best books of 1997, and the American Revolution Round Table gave it their annual award as the best book of the year. It tells the story of the nation’s founding in conjunction with a six-part series on the revolution which appeared on PBS.

Fleming is the author of books on the battle of Bunker Hill, the siege of Yorktown, pilgrims, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, West Point, Benjamin Franklin, battle for New Jersey, Lexington and Concord, Abraham Lincoln, the American Revolution, Hamilton, the Louisiana Purchase, World War I and Valley Forge.

Fleming said, “What kind of effect do I want my books to have? I hope they will make readers think — and feel — more deeply about our unique, amazing, perpetually troubled and conflicted country, the United States of America.”

Last year, the U.S. State Department invited Fleming to lecture on the Civil War in Vienna as part of its “Distinguished Author” series. For his contribution to American literature, he received the Abraham Lincoln Award from the Union League Club of New York, and in May 2007, the Society of American Historians — whose membership is limited to 250 authors notable for both historical scholarship and literary ability — named Fleming as its next president.

The exhibition, “Alexander Hamilton; The Man Who Made Modern America,” was organized by the New-York Historical Society, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the American Library Association with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. It is free and open during library hours from October 16 through December 5. For information on other Hamilton offerings go to http://inside.fdu.edu/otw/0809/libraries.html .