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ALEXANDER HAMILTON: THE MAKING OF AMERICA

Page history last edited by RichiesPicks 7 years ago

4 March 2017 ALEXANDER HAMILTON: THE MAKING OF AMERICA by Teri Kanefield, Amulet, March 2017, 176p., ISBN: 978-1-4197-2578-4

 

“Sing a song of America

Once she was a young girl with her heart on fire

Born in the dust of the magic of history

It all goes on yeah the dream goes on”

-- Paul Kantner and Marty Balin (1986)

 

“During Alexander Hamilton’s lifetime, he was not seen as a visionary or an idealist--Thomas Jefferson, with his pining for an idyllic pastoral America, his penchant for revolutions, and his belief that it was possible to live in a society without taxes, was viewed as the man with the utopian vision. Hamilton was thought of as the practical statesman with a ten-point plan for everything. Thomas Jefferson was often viewed as a humanist and liberal who valued individual liberty above all, while Hamilton was often portrayed as a backward-leaning reactionary who placed law and order above individual freedom, who longed to return to a monarchy, and who embraced the evils of European industry and banking.

“But Jefferson, unlike Hamilton, could not imagine blacks and whites living side by side as equals. While Jefferson would have been happy for America to remain a nation of farmers who exchanged raw products for finished goods, Hamilton understood that an economy dependent on others would mean remaining a colony in all but name. Jefferson wanted nothing to do with banks, commerce, industry, or global leadership. Today we can see Hamilton as the farsighted statesman who imagined a capitalistic, multiracial country that would someday belong among the wealthiest and most advanced nations.”

--from the final chapter, “Legacy”

 

I love America. I suppose that I must have been well-indoctrinated as a child, for despite all that is wanting about our country--and there is so much--I still feel fortunate to have been born and raised here.

 

What is greatest about this nation that’s currently governed by lying scoundrels is the genius of the U.S. Constitution. This durable document was hammered out in the days before electricity generation, cars, phones, planes, recorded music and images, TV, computers, and millions of other innovations and developments that the Founding Fathers could never have imagined. More than anyone, Alexander Hamilton was the father of this innovative governing document and, thereby, the real father of our country.

 

Teri Kanefield’s ALEXANDER HAMILTON: THE MAKING OF AMERICA is a well-researched and moving biography of the Founding Father who has never gotten his fair share of coverage. In reading about someone who died 213 years ago, it’s strange to feel a sense of loss. But that’s what I felt, quite deeply, as I reached the final chapter and read about Hamilton’s funeral, which followed his death in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr.

 

It’s a powerful revelation to learn that many of the same issues that confront us in today’s America were front-and-center in our nation’s infancy. In what situations is a strong central government imperative, and when should the states act as they choose? By what formula should the populace and businesses be taxed to pay for the common good and common defense? Where does one’s personal freedom interfere with the personal freedoms of others?

 

And a sidebar about demagoguery rang a bit too true for me.

 

“Plato believed, essentially, that the problem with democracy was that anyone able to con a large enough group of people could become the ruler, a situation that encouraged and rewarded demagoguery.”

 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON: THE MAKING OF AMERICA is an exceptional story about the birth of the American nation. It includes fascinating and important details about the workings of the economy that are rarely encountered in history books for young people. It’s also the story of a boy born into difficult situation who worked and studied his way to become George Washington’s right-hand man and the brains behind our amazing Constitution. Because Alexander Hamilton came from extremely precarious circumstances, we root for his success and marvel at our fortune that he turned personal setbacks into positives.

 

Young readers will join me in enjoying the fact that everything great that Alexander Hamilton succeeded in doing was built on a letter that he crafted and published at age sixteen. I appreciate how well Kanefield succeeds in drawing Hamilton as a damaged, very human man who, despite his flaws, positively influenced the lives of all of us who arrived in America long after he was gone.

 

Richie Partington, MLIS

Richie's Pickshttp://richiespicks.pbworks.com

https://www.facebook.com/richiespicks/

richiepartington@gmail.com

 

 

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