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Original Essays | September 23, 2009

Jonathan Lethem: IMG Stops: On Those Things My New Novel Forgot to Be About, Maybe



For me, there's a weird, unfathomable gulf — I almost wrote gulp — between the completion of a novel and its publication. Some days this duration feels interminable, as though the book has... Continue »
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    Chronic City

    Jonathan Lethem

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Hamilton's Curse: How Jefferson's Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution--And What It Means for Americans Today

by Thomas Dilorenzo

Hamilton's Curse: How Jefferson's Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution--And What It Means for Americans Today Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Two of the most influential figures in American history. Two opposing political philosophies. Two radically different visions for America.

Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton were without question two of the most important Founding Fathers. They were also the fiercest of rivals. Of these two political titans, it is Jefferson—–the revered author of the Declaration of Independence and our third president—–who is better remembered today. But in fact it is Hamilton’s political legacy that has triumphed—–a legacy that has subverted the Constitution and transformed the federal government into the very leviathan state that our forefathers fought against in the American Revolution.

How did we go from the Jeffersonian ideal of limited government to the bloated imperialist system of Hamilton’s design? Acclaimed economic historian Thomas J. DiLorenzo provides the troubling answer in Hamilton’s Curse.

DiLorenzo reveals how Hamilton, first as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention and later as the nation’s first and most influential treasury secretary, masterfully promoted an agenda of nationalist glory and interventionist economics—–core beliefs that did not die with Hamilton in his fatal duel with Aaron Burr. Carried on through his political heirs, the Hamiltonian legacy:

• Wrested control into the hands of the federal government by inventing the myth of the Constitution’s “implied powers”

• Established the imperial presidency (Hamilton himself proposed a permanent president—–in other words, a king)

• Devised a national banking system that imposes boom-and-bust cycles on the American economy

• Saddled Americans with a massive national debt and oppressive taxation

• Inflated the role of the federal courts in order to eviscerate individual liberties and state sovereignty

• Pushed economic policies that lined the pockets of the wealthy and created a government system built on graft, spoils, and patronage

• Transformed state governments from Jeffersonian bulwarks of liberty to beggars for federal crumbs

By debunking the Hamiltonian myths perpetuated in recent admiring biographies, DiLorenzo exposes an uncomfortable truth: The American people are no longer the masters of their government but its servants. Only by restoring a system based on Jeffersonian ideals can Hamilton’s curse be lifted, at last.

Synopsis:

In refreshing contrast to the many biographies that credit Alexander Hamiltonwith turning America into an economic power, the author of "The Real Lincoln"clarifies how Hamilton's ideas are actually a betrayal of the very principlesof the American Revolution.

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BigEye, September 20, 2009 (view all comments by BigEye)
This is a very important book. Prof. DiLorenzo's independent thinking provides a breath of fresh air to those of us who have absorbed myths promulgated by Washington DC's court historians and apologists.

Jefferson had years to reflect on the political structure and policies effected during his years of active public service, having left office in 1809 and dying in 1826. According to the recent book, "Twilight at Montecello" (also an enlightening read) he harbored second thoughts on both the inordinate power granted the Supreme Court (the power to negate drafted legislation) as well as a system that eviscerated strength of State and local governments.

Jefferson, this great and enigmatic man, propounded a faith in what would later be termed "the masses" that continues to strike the best and the brightest as curious, at the least. My own opinion is that Jeffersn's sentiment served as a strategic bulwalk systemically against what he knew of human nature, wealth, power, ambition, and the track records of governmets and of empires. This view rationalizes the contradictions TJ expressed (e.g., in his plans for public education).

This book is truly a "must read", particularly in these critical times. Hamilton's curse is as old as Alcibides, Caesar, L'ancien regieme, Napoleon, and the empire defeated by the generation of Jefferson and Hamilton. The extent to which the struggling peoples of this world (including on our own continent) expect America to be different is precisely the difference between the ideas of Thomas Jefferson and those of Alexander Hamilton.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780307382849
Subtitle:
How Jefferson's Archenemy Betrayed the American Revolution--And What It Means for Americans Today
Publisher:
Crown Forum
Author:
Dilorenzo, Thomas J.
Author:
Dilorenzo, Thomas
Subject:
United States - General
Subject:
Philosophy
Subject:
Political culture
Subject:
General
Subject:
United States - 18th Century
Subject:
United States - Antebellum Era
Subject:
Political History
Subject:
Political culture -- United States.
Subject:
United States Politics and government.
Publication Date:
October 2008
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
245
Dimensions:
8.54x5.56x1.01 in. .88 lbs.

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