'Wait what?' This 'historian's' take on Alexander Hamilton is 'breathtakingly ignorant'

aww https://t.co/QFRBEbDyAQ

— Shoshana Weissmann, Sloth Committee Chair ? (@senatorshoshana) April 6, 2016

Well, this is unfortunate …

Slate history writer Rebecca Onion interviewed Lyra Monteiro, a critic of the hit musical “Hamilton”:

But perhaps the strongest entry yet in the small-but-growing canon of Hamilton criticism was published by historian Lyra Monteiro in the journal the Public Historian. Monteiro’s essay is a resounding corrective, questioning the universal understanding of the show as racially progressive, unpacking the unusual casting strategy, and wondering why no historical people of color find a place in Hamilton’s narrative. Acknowledging that the show may have the power to interest kids in the history of the Revolutionary era because of the way its major roles are cast, Monteiro asks: “Is this the history that we most want black and brown youth to connect with—one in which black lives so clearly do not matter?”

Monteiro sounds like a fun gal. But it gets better:

https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/717775852436586498

And — you guessed it — a college professor:

For an alleged history expert, she sure doesn’t seem to be terribly well versed in, you know, history.

https://twitter.com/NoahCRothman/status/717776886861021185

Ha! It definitely has that parody vibe going on.

Recommended

Uh Oh: After Humiliating Congressional Hearing, U Penn President Magill May Be Asked to Step Down

Amy Curtis

Advertisement

https://twitter.com/SethAMandel/status/717776544526163968

https://twitter.com/BenjySarlin/status/717776975511883777

https://twitter.com/Neal_Dewing/status/717777276784537600

@lachlan OMG the incredible stupidity in this article. It's not that goddamn hard to look it up (FTR he was anti-slavery)

— Loren (@LorenSethC) April 6, 2016

Yep.

@lachlan "I guess he thought this. Pretty sure. No one knows but you know."

— Good King Tweetman (@Goodtweet_man) April 6, 2016

"I mean, who knows what he did? That would require, like, research, man." https://t.co/U0HAQLBkQM

— David Rutz (@DavidRutz) April 6, 2016

And research is for suckers!

Oh well. At least there’s a silver lining in all this:

https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/717776590759927810

Excellent.