The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton


Book Description

Annotation Alexander Hamilton has been the focus of debate from his day to ours. On the one hand, Hamilton was the quintessential Founding Father, playing a central role in every key debate and event in the Revolutionary and Early Republic eras. Who was he really and what is his legacy? Was Hamilton a closet monarchist or a sincere republican?




The Political Philosophy of Alexander Hamilton


Book Description

Introduction:Hamilton's significance --The personal background of a political theorist --Hamilton's philosophical anthropology --Theoretical foundations of constitutionalism --Hamilton and American constitutional formation --Hamilton's foreign policy --Hamilton's political economy --Hamilton and Jefferson --Conclusion:Hamilton's legacy.




American Machiavelli


Book Description

Alexander Hamilton rose from his humble beginnings as an illegitimate West Indian orphan and emigrant to become the premier statebuilder and strategic thinker of the American Founding generation.




America's Founding and the Struggle over Economic Inequality


Book Description

If, as many allege, attacking the gap between rich and poor is a form of class warfare, then the struggle against income inequality is the longest running war in American history. To defenders of the status quo, who argue that the accumulation of wealth free of government intervention is an essential feature of the American way, this book offers a forceful answer. While many of those who oppose addressing economic inequality through public policy today do so in the name of freedom, Clement Fatovic demonstrates that concerns about freedom informed the Founding Fathers' arguments for public policy that tackled economic disparities. Where contemporary arguments against such government efforts conceptualize freedom in economic terms, however, those supporting public policies conducive to greater economic equality invoked a more participatory, republican, conception of freedom. As many of the Founders understood it, economic independence, which requires a wide if imperfect distribution of property, is a precondition of the political independence they so profoundly valued. Fatovic reveals a deep concern among the Founders--including Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and Noah Webster--about the impact of economic inequality on political freedom. America's Founding and the Struggle over Economic Inequality traces this concern through many important political debates in Congress and the broader polity that shaped the early Republic--debates over tax policies, public works, public welfare, and the debt from the Revolution. We see how Alexander Hamilton, so often characterized as a cold-hearted apologist for plutocrats, actually favored a more progressive system of taxation, along with various policies aimed at easing the economic hardship of specific groups. In Thomas Paine, frequently portrayed as an advocate of laissez-faire government, we find a champion of a comprehensive welfare state that would provide old-age pensions, public housing, and a host of other benefits as a matter of "right, not charity." Contrary to the picture drawn by so many of today's pundits and politicians, this book shows us how, for the first American statesmen, preventing or minimizing economic disparities was essential to the preservation of the new nation's freedom and practice of self-government.




Alexander Hamilton


Book Description

The #1 New York Times bestseller, and the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical Hamilton! Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow presents a landmark biography of Alexander Hamilton, the Founding Father who galvanized, inspired, scandalized, and shaped the newborn nation. "Grand-scale biography at its best—thorough, insightful, consistently fair, and superbly written . . . A genuinely great book." —David McCullough “A robust full-length portrait, in my view the best ever written, of the most brilliant, charismatic and dangerous founder of them all." —Joseph Ellis Few figures in American history have been more hotly debated or more grossly misunderstood than Alexander Hamilton. Chernow’s biography gives Hamilton his due and sets the record straight, deftly illustrating that the political and economic greatness of today’s America is the result of Hamilton’s countless sacrifices to champion ideas that were often wildly disputed during his time. “To repudiate his legacy,” Chernow writes, “is, in many ways, to repudiate the modern world.” Chernow here recounts Hamilton’s turbulent life: an illegitimate, largely self-taught orphan from the Caribbean, he came out of nowhere to take America by storm, rising to become George Washington’s aide-de-camp in the Continental Army, coauthoring The Federalist Papers, founding the Bank of New York, leading the Federalist Party, and becoming the first Treasury Secretary of the United States.Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power. His is a Hamilton far more human than we’ve encountered before—from his shame about his birth to his fiery aspirations, from his intimate relationships with childhood friends to his titanic feuds with Jefferson, Madison, Adams, Monroe, and Burr, and from his highly public affair with Maria Reynolds to his loving marriage to his loyal wife Eliza. And never before has there been a more vivid account of Hamilton’s famous and mysterious death in a duel with Aaron Burr in July of 1804. Chernow’s biography is not just a portrait of Hamilton, but the story of America’s birth seen through its most central figure. At a critical time to look back to our roots, Alexander Hamilton will remind readers of the purpose of our institutions and our heritage as Americans. 9780143034759




Alexander Hamilton


Book Description

An indispensable resource for all readers, this book summarizes the founding of America alongside the personal and public life of one of America's most influential Founders through a comprehensive investigation of Hamilton's extensive writings. A product of extremely humble birth, Alexander Hamilton rose to become one of America's leading political figures, helping to determine the direction of nearly all of the seminal events of the founding of the country. The author introduces, provides notes on, and critically evaluates approximately 60 key documents that Hamilton wrote from his youth in the Caribbean through his leadership of the Federalist Party in the 1800s. In examining these writings, the book covers important periods of American history including the American Revolution, the ratification of the Constitution, the formation of the nation's first financial system, and the establishment of political parties. This book is a valuable resource for anyone who wants to study the key moments of the revolutionary and founding periods of America through the life and legacy of one of the country's most eminent statesmen. The work concludes with a chronology that provides historical context for the most significant personal and political events in Hamilton's life and a bibliography that offers a basis for further study.




Henry Cabot Lodge, Alexander Hamilton and the Political Thought of the Gilded Age


Book Description

We are currently witnessing a renewal of broad public interest in the life and career of Alexander Hamilton – justly famed as an American founder. This volume examines the possible present-day significance of the man, noting that this is not the first revival of interest in the statesman. Hamilton was a major background figure in the GOP politics of the Gilded Age, with the powerful US Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr. drawing on Hamilton to inspire a new, assertive American role in the world. Hamilton was first prominent as a soldier and aide to General Washington, and believed in centralization of power in the federal government and an energetic presidency. He founded the American financial system as the first Secretary of the Treasury, and was a great moving force of America’s first nationalist-conservative party – the Federalists. As shown here, close scholarly attention to Lodge’s biography brings out the darker sides of the celebrated hero. Hamilton’s deeper conviction was the need of an elitist “aristocratic republic,” and he was an advocate of military-commercial empire. The Gilded Age Hamilton revival helped inspire the Spanish-American war of 1898 and an American overseas empire. This book will be of interest for students and professionals in political philosophy, political science, American history and American studies.




The Secret Wife of Aaron Burr


Book Description

Inspired by a woman and events forgotten by history, bestselling author Susan Holloway Scott weaves together carefully researched fact and fiction to tell the story of Mary Emmons, and the place she held in the life—and the heart—of the notorious Aaron Burr. He was a hero of the Revolution, a brilliant politician, lawyer, and very nearly president; a skillful survivor in a raw new country filled with constantly shifting loyalties. Today Aaron Burr is remembered more for the fatal duel that killed rival Alexander Hamilton. But long before that single shot destroyed Burr’s political career, there were other dark whispers about him: that he was untrustworthy, a libertine, a man unafraid of claiming whatever he believed should be his. Sold into slavery as a child in India, Mary Emmons was brought to an America torn by war. Toughened by the experiences of her young life, Mary is intelligent, resourceful, and strong. She quickly gains the trust of her new mistress, Theodosia Prevost, and becomes indispensable in a complicated household filled with intrigue—especially when the now-widowed Theodosia marries Colonel Aaron Burr. As Theodosia sickens with the fatal disease that will finally kill her, Mary and Burr are drawn together into a private world of power and passion, and a secret, tangled union that would have shocked the nation . . . Praise for I, Eliza Hamilton “Scott’s devotion to research is evident . . . a rewarding take on a fascinating historical couple.” —Library Journal “Readers will be captivated.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Packed with political and historical as well as domestic details.” —Booklist




From a Small Seed - The Story of Eliza Hamilton


Book Description

A lyrical picture book biography of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, co-founder and director of the first private orphanage in New York City and wife of founding father Alexander Hamilton. Ever since she was a young girl, Eliza Hamilton hoped to help people in need. From the private quarters of her family home to her national platform as Hamilton’s partner, Eliza was a lifelong advocate for fairness, freedom and faith. The remarkable acts of charity and public service she performed after Alexander’s death are considered a significant contribution to the Hamilton legacy the world celebrates today. Here is a thoughtful, historical account of her life beginning with her childhood influences. Much like the award-winning picture book biographies that celebrate trailblazing women like The House that Jane Built: A Story About Jane Addams and Hillary Rodham Clinton: Some Girls Are Born to Lead, Camille Andros and Tessa Blackham's From a Small Seed—The Story of Eliza Hamilton is an accessible portrait of an exemplary public figure whose principles have stood the test of time. Christy Ottaviano Books




The Many Faces of Socioeconomic Change


Book Description

"Development is not a purely economic phenomenon; it also has a strong sociological element. The Many Faces of Socioeconomic Change explores how economic socio-cultural and political aspects of human progress have been studied since the time of Adam Smith. Surveying narratives of how development occurs, from early evolutionary models to recent types of development theory, it outlines the main long-term changes in how socioeconomic development has been envisaged through time. With a broad scope of content and clear exposition of academic thinking, The Many Faces of Socioeconomic Change guides the reader through the way in which the policy adopted as a consequence of modern theories has been less effective because of the neglect or a misunderstanding of the social context within which they operate. It tracks the progress of socioeconomic development from its roots in the Enlightenment and mid-Victorian thinking through to the narrowing scope of economically based strategies in the mid-twentieth century, and the disconnected results of research methods used today."--