You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.

Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - September - 2004 Issue

Alexander Hamilton: American History in the Making

This is a fascinating account of a complex, powerful and imperfect man.

This is a fascinating account of a complex, powerful and imperfect man.


By Bruce McKinney

On the 200th anniversary of the death of Alexander Hamilton [1757-1804], at the hands of Aaron Burr, Ron Chernow, the exceptional biographer, has issued a riveting account of this storied life. His book is simply Alexander Hamilton. To many Hamilton is simply an image on the US ten dollar bill but his story is an essential piece of the early American mosaic.

If Hamilton does not quite rise to the level of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln in our national awareness it is not because his accomplishments are significantly less. Rather it is because, in our simplified view of history we remember presidents as the apexes of their eras. In this account Hamilton emerges as a gifted, singular force that brought exceptional intellect to the nascent American national experience, acted as the de facto chief of Staff to George Washington during the revolution, was then the principal writer of the Federalist, the series of essays written both to explain and to sell the new constitution in the 1780s. Later, when George Washington became the first President, Hamilton was appointed the first Secretary of the Treasury.

At the founding of the United States its constitutional form was not yet determined. The states were of different sizes, their economies both of different scales and dependencies, their populations slave, indentured and free. Each state was independent and jealously sought to maintain local advantages while tendering to the national union only the absolute minimum necessary. Common defense was easier to agree upon than economic union. Hamilton became the articulate voice and principal writer of the Federalist, a series of newspaper articles that were later collected in book form and published in many editions that progressively made the case for a strong national government. While none of the 85 essays are signed it is generally believed Hamilton contributed 52 articles, James Madison 28 and John Jay 5.

Once ratified the organizational steps called for in the constitution were taken. Washington was elected President and a provisional capitol, New York, established. Washington then called his government into being with the appointments of several secretaries, chief among them Alexander Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury.

From the outset income for the national government was a problem. The states, that in many cases reluctantly supported a stronger union, withheld financial support. In time Hamilton would propose to Washington that import duties would least inconvenience the states and the monolithic tax collector that would become the carnivore we know today took its first bites. Within a few years the government would seek new sources of income and specifically to tax spirits [alcohol]. That would lead to America's first, but not last, tax revolt, the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania in 1794.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Buzz Aldrin's FLOWN Apollo 11 Crew-Signed NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Cover. $15,000 to $20,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Lunar Surface Flown Mission Emblem Presented to Tom Stafford by John Young. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Extensive Chronology of Spacecraft From Apollo to Skylab, Signed by a Member of Every Crewed Apollo Flight and the Commanders of Each Skylab Mission. $5,000 to $8,000.

Review Search

Archived Reviews