Himself and i want to see what you could pull even from Something Like that. The first one i want to look at that i think gives you a gut sense of what he was thinking about at the time, what he was thinking of about america and what he thinks about when he thinks about the american government, its a memo that he wrote right after the constitutional convention. And leading up to it for a while, he had been one of the nations new leading nationalists, one of the earliest voices and loudest voices saying we need a stronger government. We need a stronger government. He was out there chiming away for this. You finally get the constitutional convention. You would think that hamilton would be like, yes, finally, we have a new constitution. Ive been wanting this all along and now finally were here. Okay. So to know what hes thinking, its a memo after the convention, he goes home and in a very lawyerly kind of way he sits down at his desk and says, what do you think is going to happen next . A
Well, its incredibly exciting to welcome my friend of nearly 30 years now Joanne Freeman who i got to know running the streets of charlottesville when we were both young graduate students. It was already apparent at the time that there were a lot of smart people, i dont know how i got in, but joanne was already sort of head and shoulders above her colleagues, just had an incredibly sharp mind, was already talking about this founding father guy Alexander Hamilton, who most of us were like, come on, thats sort of boring. But lots of pressient things about joannes work as a scholar. Her first book affairs of honor published in 2001, does this sound relevant today, arousing exploitation of the distopian political culture. She was gone on to edit hamiltons writing. I hope joanne with tell us about how close to being a lifelong passion for Alexander Hamilton, shes add, was it the eighth grade. 14 years old she sent me a picture of her essay which she has preserved about the duel. This is som
Can you hear me ok . Thank you so much for being here today. We are really excited to have this book. Michael and i go back a few years now. I have been a big cheerleader of his for several years. It is exciting to have this conversation with you to learn more about this book. First, michael, why did you decide to write this book . I think that is the biggest question. Michael first, i want to thank the museum of American Finance for hosting this and organizing this. Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton, is the most fascinating and remarkable founding father. Yet there is so much of his life that is uncertain, controversial. I started by just reading about hamilton, and i learned about all this controversy. What year was he born . What battle did he fight him . All the stuff we did not know. I basically read every book there is. I went to all the primary sources to determine what the truth is, and wrote it down. When you learn the truth, his story is even more remarkable than what you read in
I wrote an oped in in the wall street journal i will be talking about that later on by an excited about that i want to know why that is important to tiein the theme of the book but the last time, let me back up if you dont know what socrateses in the city is a lot of people dont know what that is first of all, thank you for rappee of your early bird dinner and hustling to the tv i know is very tough and i appreciated it i have been on cspan before a they get my humor is okay. But i want to say this is the isocrates is in the city event normally i interview someone we have tons of videos of the interviewing extraordinary people. I cannot even think of the aisle list but if you go there you will see we had clad well. We had a share, jack carter burns and allen also George Plimpton the injures sisters the smothers brothers flip wilson. Added a and castillo that was of a cameo in the rich brothers break here of this stage i have interviewed them all. Charles darwin. So we have had the ecle
Talking about that a little bit later on but im just really excited about that. I want to talk about why that day is importantportant to me at kind of ties into the theme of the book. Im not talking about the book yet, introducing myself first. Lp wctually, let me back up. Kno if you dont know what socratesc in and the city is and if youre watchingop on cspan book tv yo, have no idea. I want to thank you for wrapping up your early bird dinner and hustling to the tv, i thank you for that. Tv its tough to pull yourself away. Golden corral has several suitsp and i know itsre tough to pull yourself away that i appreciate. Ive been on cspan before, they getetbefore a my humor. Its okay. Want to but this is a socrates in thes h and the city event but its a little different event. Normally i interview someone any you can go on youtube. We have tons of videos of me ex interviewing extraordinary people. I cant even think of the list e now. Bu but we had Malcolm Gladwell on the stage, we had sha