Hamilton’s Curse: How Jefferson’s Arch Enemy Betrayed the American Revolution–and What It Means for Individuals Right now

Whereas Jefferson is healthier remembered immediately, it’s truly Hamilton’s political legacy that has triumphed–a legacy that has subverted the Structure and reworked the federal authorities into the very leviathan state that our forefathers fought in opposition to within the American Revolution. How did we go from the Jeffersonian ideally suited of restricted authorities to the bloated imperialist system of Hamilton’s design? Acclaimed financial historian, Thomas J. DiLorenzo reveals how Hamilton, first as a delegate to the Constitutional Conference and later because the nation’s first and most influential treasury secretary, masterfully promoted an agenda of nationalist glory and interventionist economics. These core beliefs didn’t die with Hamilton in his deadly duel with Aaron Burr, however had been carried on by means of his political heirs.

The Hamiltonian legacy wrested management into the palms of the federal authorities by inventing the parable of the Structure’s “implied powers, remodeling state governments from Jeffersonian bulwarks of liberty to beggars for federal crumbs. It additionally devised a nationwide banking system that imposes boom-and-bust cycles on the American economic system; saddled Individuals with an enormous nationwide debt and oppressive taxation, and pushed financial insurance policies that lined the pockets of the rich and created a authorities system constructed on graft, spoils, and patronage.

By debunking the Hamiltonian myths, DiLorenzo exposes an uncomfortable reality: the American individuals are not the masters of their authorities however its servants. Solely by restoring a system based mostly on Jeffersonian beliefs can Hamilton’s curse be lifted, finally.