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ALEXANDER HAMILTON By Ron Chernow Here a few things you didn't know about Alexander Hamilton. He was born illegitimate in the British West Indies. At 14 he was broke and virtually an orphan--his mother was dead, his father gone. But by 22 he was an aide-de-camp to George Washington, and by 34 he was this country's first Secretary of the Treasury and the principal architect of U.S.-style capitalism. For everything in between, pick up Chernow's vast and vastly entertaining biography. --By Lev Grossman