From this small extensive land on the north american came four of the nations five, a dynasty securing independence and building the republic. What a great way to start a book. I spent last night reading it and its a wonderful chronicle of the four leaders in the networks that tied this together at the founding of the country. Its a story that evokes what the historians called spirit of hope and perseverance that runs straight through the american experience. Doctor cheney is a longtime member of the faculty so i want to take a moment to acknowledge how much we appreciate the scholarship and intellectual contributions not to mention the service for the country. This is the latest of the works that examine the countrys history, consideration. The last book James Madison a life reconsidered became a New York Times bestseller in 2014 and shed new light on one of our most underappreciated founders. I also want to thank the interviewer today, Vice President cheney for his service to the cou
Hate. [laughter] it is a little daunting. Trace the arc. Im going to do a historian thing and think generally. I guess i would say if yo they e looking at american politics from the beginning, we could even go past the civil war, we are talking about paradoxes and conflict and improv. The periods but i tend to focus on more at that part, its the improvisational nature of that fascinates me more than anything else. Its because the nation was founded in the world of monarc monarchy. What that means wasnt so clear at the moment. There is a lot of improv in those early decades about what the nation is, how it functions, the tone of the f government, hp a nationon is going to stand out among the nations of the world. What does it mean to be in a world of monarchies and was the nation going to get any degree of respect and equally and if not more significant as far as the inside of the nation is concerned, what kind of nation is tha it going to be and that s true on every level you could s a
Hogeland discusses Alexander Hamiltons financial ideas. This is about 50 minutes. Now, while the museum, the gallery of the museum is closed because of a flood that we sustained, our robust programming continues, as evidenced by today. And our author who is speaking is william hogeland. Hes written multiple books on early u. S. History, including autumn of the black snake, declaration, the whiskey rebellion, and founding finance. Hes also the author of a recent publication or not author, a contributor, i should say to a recent publication historians on hamilton. Hes also penned many essays and articles that you can read in places like the atlantic monthly, the new york times, boston review, huffington post, but none more important than our own magazine financial history. You can find that magazine at www. Moaf. Org for museum of American Finance. So, it should be no surprise that the topic of williams next book is Alexander Hamilton. Its my pleasure to introduce him, william hogeland.
Indepth program. With author and historian, joanne freeman. Books include affairs of honor,o the essential hamilton, and most recently, the field of blood. Violence in congress and the road to civil war. Joanne freeman you are going to hate this opening question. Spak zero. Trace the art of our nations history from 1783, 21861, the political history. Wow. Okay, the speech. Thats a little i daunting. Tracy r. Im going to do historian thing and speak generally. I guess i would say if you are looking in american politics, from the beginning like through we could even go after the war, talking about paradoxes, and conflict. I tend to focus on is really more the early part of the ark. It is the improvisational nature of that. It is because the nation was founded in a world of monarchy. And you know the United States of republic what that means was it so clear at the moment and people knew they were trying to do something that wasntth that. So were not going to create a monarchy the presiden
And one of the things i try to get across whenever i am talking about washington, is that washington is a bit of an enigma to a modern audience. Why . Because we dont really know who he was, how he was, how he looked. I mean, when i show you these images here, these images are of three of our noteworthy president s. Every 10 years or so, about 700 political scientists and historians across the country, they rank our president s. Now who knows how our current president is going to rank, but nonetheless, whenever those rankings come out, generally these three guys here rank at the top. Sometimes it will be lincoln. Sometimes it will be washington. Sometimes it will be fdr, but the interesting thing about this is we do not know what george really looked like. We have images of lincoln. Photographed images. And you can follow those photographs over time and see how he changed, how he aged. Of course we have images of fdr. We even have images of him in his wheelchair. Generally the press di