Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography, this book examines America's founding era through the lives of Angelica and Elizabeth Schuyler, daughters of colonial Hudson Valley aristocracy. Rather than following expected dynastic paths, the sisters became embroiled in the American Revolution and rebelled against their predetermined destinies in distinctly different ways. Angelica, glamorous and drawn to powerful men, eloped with a war profiteer and lived luxuriously, charming Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and the Prince of Wales. Eliza, candid and uninterested in influence or intrigue, married Alexander Hamilton, a penniless outsider, and devoted herself to his career. After his appointment as America's first treasury secretary, she faced public and private controversies surrounding him, including a growing attraction between him and her sister. When tragedy struck, both women's lives transformed fundamentally. Drawing on extensive archival research, Amanda Vaill weaves family drama with historical context, creating a narrative that encompasses battles and dinner parties, politics and personal loyalties and betrayals.