The Hamilton Scheme, William Hogeland
The Hamilton Scheme, William Hogeland
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The Hamilton Scheme
An Epic Tale of Money and Power in the American Founding

Author: William Hogeland

Narrator: William Hogeland

Unabridged: 17 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/28/2024


Synopsis

Alexander Hamilton has become a global celebrity. Millions know his name and imagine knowing the man. But what did he really want for the country? What risks did he run in pursuing those vaulting ambitions? Who tried to stop him? How did they fight? It's ironic that the Hamilton revival has obscured the man's most dramatic battles and hardest-won achievements—as well as downplaying unsettling aspects of his legacy.

Thrilling to the romance of becoming the one-man inventor of a modern nation, our first Treasury secretary fostered growth by engineering an ingenious dynamo—banking, public debt, manufacturing—for concentrating national wealth in the hands of a government-connected elite. Seeking American prosperity, he built American oligarchy. Hence his animus and mutual sense of betrayal with Jefferson and Madison—and his career-long fight to suppress a rowdy egalitarian movement little remembered today: the eighteenth-century white working class.

Marshaling an idiosyncratic cast of insiders and outsiders, vividly dramatizing backroom intrigues and literal street fights—and sharply dissenting from recent biographies—William Hogeland's The Hamilton Scheme brings to life Hamilton's vision and the struggles over democracy, wealth, and the meaning of America that drove the nation's creation and hold enduring significance today.

About William Hogeland

William Hogeland is the author of several books on founding US history, The Whiskey Rebellion, Declaration, and Founding Finance, as well as a collection of essays, Inventing American History. Born in Virginia and raised in Brooklyn, he lives in New York City.


Reviews

Goodreads review by David on May 27, 2024

A clear-eyed, vivid portrait of the financial entanglements of the American founding that once established could not be excised. Hogeland is relentlessly factual in describing Hamilton's methods as a scheme, conceived with the great financiers of his today to expand wealth and power and crush those......more

Goodreads review by Claire on October 25, 2024

Who knew a book about finance could be interesting (to non-economists)? This one sure was. At times, even a page turner. A portion of US constitutional history that in my student days was covered in probably a page at most, from the declaration to the constitution, is told in 150+ pages revealing ins......more

Goodreads review by Chelsie on May 24, 2024

*I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.* THIS is the Hamilton that needs made into a film! As a whole I believe we have all been in the throes of Hamilton: The Musical and have missed out on a great deal of the brilliance and strife of Hamilton’s life.......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on December 26, 2024

An Engaging, Though Occasionally Scattered, Look at Hamiltonian Finance Hogeland's 2024 book "The Hamilton Scheme" does an admirable job of guiding readers through Alexander Hamilton's financial plan for the new American government, aimed at assuming state debts and establishing global credit in the......more

Goodreads review by Anthony on August 27, 2024

An excellent examination of Alexander Hamiltons role in the founding of U.S. financial systems and markets and effectively the new nation and it's lasting influence. A robust detailed account of Hamilton's rise from clerk/accountant in British trading houses, to his connections to the richest men in......more