Whoo hoo! Hamilton is on Disney+! I’m one of the very privileged who was able to see it live on Broadway and it was an absolutely fantastic experience for this history nerd– nerding out to history all of a sudden became cool! Seeing it on the TV screen was exhilarating, as well. Being able to see the actors’ facial expressions and see more of the symbolism woven into the play gave it more meaning than it had before.

It is absolutely no secret that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton has taken, well, everyone by storm and has reignited interest in the history of our nation’s founding. The songs are a fantastic way to drive curriculum in a fun, catchy way and Gilder Lehrman’s EduHam programming– which is now available to everyone- takes it to the next level by culminating in student performances.

The attached Doc is an analysis sheet of Cabinet Battle #1 and Cabinet Battle #2. It walks students step by step through the lyrics and asks them to think about Hamilton’s ideas for the federal government, in particular his financial plan, and think about the way Jefferson refutes Hamilton on every turn. The document also asks students to draw upon their knowledge from class to write about things that the play left out of the politics of this time period.

The document for the Cabinet Battle Analysis can be found by clicking here. (Its’ free!)

You can listen to the entire soundtrack (legally) on YouTube here. (Yes, there is a curse in the lyrics. I play it, anyway. It isn’t anything my 8th graders haven’t heard before. To get it clean so it could be streamed on Disney Plus, Lin-Manuel Miranda tweeted that he literally gave two f’s. 😂)