The Hamilton Scheme

An Epic Tale of Money and Power in the American Founding

By: William Hogeland

Narrated by: William Hogeland

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.

©2024 William Hogeland (P)2024 Tantor

Interesting topic, deeply confusing

I read lots of history and admire Hogeland's choice of subjects. I found this book disappointing and unpleasant to listen to. Hogeland uses long, complex sentences, and reads the book with an ironic, critical tone that constantly challenged me. Does each sentence mean what it says, or is it ironic and the message is the opposite?

I liked the concept of Hogeland's epilogue to track the political uses later generations assigned to the memories of Jefferson and Hamilton. But the execution just confused me.

I think this book would have been better if it had a clearly stated thesis and if it were about half as long. Hogeland IMO needs better editing.

it's great but racist

Story is great. Therin lies the problem. Today's discerning readers do not want good thought provoking histories. They want to experience righteous outrage over Donald Trump and his plan to kill all the 2SLGBTQTIA + people. The author failed to make 1 mention of Donald Trump. There is no mention of the fact that the founding fathers were most likely closeted homosexuals, or the fact they all repeatedly raped their female slaves. How can a story like this be written? I demand an apology from the author

Depth

A true in depth analysis of the man and the myths. Lots of greatness but many faults

A great history lesson

This was a great book on the early days of our government & the people responsible.., interesting & well written.., in fact I'm about to start a book about Albert Gallatin the Swiss immigrant from the other party that followed Hamilton in the Jefferson administration...

Epilogue surveys Hamilton in popular imagination

Founding ideologies are discussed alongside economic realities, personal and visionary, that deepen our understanding of the nations history.