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Alexander Hamilton, the worldly New Yorker; John Adams, the curmudgeonly Yankee; Thomas Jefferson, the visionary Virginia squire―each steered their public lives under the guideposts and constraints of Enlightenment principles, and for each their relationship to the politics of Enlightenment was transformed by the struggle for American independence. Repeated humiliation on America's battlefields banished Hamilton's youthful idealism, leaving him a fervent disciple of enlightened realpolitik and the nation's leading exponent of modern statecraft. After ten years in Europe's diplomatic trenches, Adams's embrace of the politics of Enlightenment became increasingly that of the gadfly of his country. And Jefferson's frustrations as a reformer and then Revolutionary governor in Virginia led him to go beyond his previous enlightened worldview and articulate a new and radical Romantic politics of principle.
Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson is a marvelous reminder that the world of ideas is inextricably bound up in the long trajectory of historical events.
- Sales Rank: #453560 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Hill and Wang
- Published on: 2007-02-06
- Released on: 2007-02-06
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .96" w x 5.50" l, 1.25 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 432 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Publishers Weekly
By now it's commonplace to ascribe the principles of the American founding to the Enlightenment, and CUNY historian Staloff offers no startling new information or refreshingly original readings of this period. He contends that the epistemological turn to empiricism, the disenchantment with the metaphysical and the move toward urbanism provide the core of Enlightenment politics, and he uncritically uses these three principles as lenses through which to read the politics of three of America's founders: Hamilton, Adams and Jefferson. Hamilton "promoted rapid industrialization and urban growth fostered by a strong central government capable of projecting its interests and power in the world at large." While Adams shared with John Locke an optimism that scientific education could promote liberty, he knew too well that human nature was corrupt enough to need a political system with checks and balances. Staloff (The Making of an American Thinking Class) gives his most thoughtful readings to Jefferson, who he says fostered a Romantic sensibility in American politics. Jefferson, he says, most changed American politics by showing the need for those politics to be built on an idealistic vision. But among a continuing flood of books about these and other American founders, Staloff's provides little that is new or provocative. (July 4)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Hamilton, Adams, and Jefferson were each self-consciously men of the Enlightenment, but each placed his own particular spin on certain Enlightenment concepts. It was the interaction between their sometimes-antagonistic interpretations that resulted in the unique American political and economic milieu that emerged from the Revolutionary epoch. Staloff (The Making of an American Thinking Class, 1997) teaches history at the City College of New York. In profiling the lives and beliefs of these Founders, he has masterfully shown how their particular visions continue to influence our nation. Hamilton brought a strain of realpolitik and skepticism regarding the abstraction of the "popular will." Adams, constantly fearful of the corruption of concentrated power, sought solace in checks and balances. Jefferson's soaring (and sometimes dangerous) visions provided a romantic streak to our political discourse. This book is a wonderful reexamination of three men who jointly molded the underpinnings of the new republic. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
“A lucid argument, usefully extending the intellectual history of the American Revolution by interrogating three great revolutionaries.” ―Kirkus Reviews
“Thoughtful, infectious in its enthusiasm, and briskly argued.” ―Leslie Kitchen, History News Network
Most helpful customer reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
A Thoughtful Book
By David Montgomery
Darren Staloff offers a compelling and insightful study on the influence of Enlightenment thought on Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. Staloff starts with an introduction on the Enlightenment, followed by a lengthy chapter on each of his three subjects in question, with a little more emphasis on Jefferson. Staloff asserts that the influence of the Enlightenment was most evidenced and put into practice in this country during the period of the framing of our government, and especially through the thoughts and actions of these three prominent founders.
As Staloff mentioned, the Enlightenment was the combination of a diverse set of ideas and beliefs espoused by a host of philosophes, including Newton, Locke, Hume, Voltaire, Rousseau and so many others who helped define this new mode of thinking. They were believers in science and railed against `enthusiasm', defined as political and especially religious zeal. They believed in the importance of education, reason, commerce, and in most cases a more republican form of government. Staloff discusses this much better than I can. In essence, these philosophes and their writings contributed fodder to the three founders he discusses in their attempts to help frame our government and setting forth the direction they wanted the country to take.
Hamilton was a most accomplished man in life, championing the American cause during its struggle against Great Britain, serving in the continental army as an aid to General Washington, primary author of many of the essays in the Federalist Papers supporting the Constitution, serving as Secretary of Treasury during the Washington Presidency, and symbolizing the primary voice for a stronger central government. Hamilton was never beloved, nor is he today. He had character traits that don't usually win admiration, but the power of his mind and his influence could not and cannot be denied. He was a controversial figure in his time and remains so. But as Staloff confirms, it was Hamilton's vision of America, with its emphasis on a stronger central government and increased wealth and power though industry and commerce that became the eventual reality. Hamilton really understood the essence of realpolitik.
John Adams was without doubt one of the most dedicated men to the cause of American independence. Adams was a principled man who did not always take popular positions, but he took them because he believed it right, such as defending the British soldiers in the Boston Massacre incident. He worked tirelessly in his diplomatic positions, especially in securing loans from the Dutch. Adams also had a profound belief, as the others did, in the value of education as being the best safeguard to protect liberty. Through the crafting of the Constitution to its eventual implementation, Adams was a renowned constitutional theorist and contributed greatly to the concept of a system of checks and balances. Adams was not without his own faults. He could be excessively vain and easy to anger. Some criticized him for being monarchial and disdainful of the people. Adams, through his broad knowledge of history, developed a keen awareness of human nature, thus wanting a system of checks and balances in government.
Staloff's last chapter is dedicated to the political life of a true Renaissance man, Thomas Jefferson. The gifted writer of the Declaration of Independence who, among other things, championed freedom of speech and religion as well as limited government, would also be the source of America's romantic vision. It was Jefferson, according to Staloff, who was the first to establish a vision for his country. In his case, he believed in the superiority of the independent yeoman farmer and a fiscally responsible as well as restrained federal government. He helped create the party system and ably led his political faction to power.
Jefferson was seemingly both radical and conservative depending on the issue. He abhorred slavery, yet became defensive when he felt his home state of Virginia and the rest of the South was being assaulted by the political and economic forces of the North. Jefferson saw the dangers of slavery and its threat to the Union, yet he became a forceful advocate for states' rights and did little to hinder the `peculiar institution'. He was more radical in his belief in the value and necessities of periodic revolutions as a means to stop the growth of oppressive and unchecked governments that threatened the liberties of the people. Regardless of what you thought of the man and the society he was part of, his brilliance and contributions, like those of Hamilton and Adams, were profuse and far-reaching.
Staloff makes a good effort in showing the influence of the Enlightenment on these particular founders and the making of our nation. Its influence was undeniable, but it wasn't the only influence. Many of these men looked to the Greek and Roman models and the developments in the British state. Much has been written recently on the founders and the early history of our republic and that's an understatement. His portraits of these three distinguished founders are well worth reading, even if there isn't a lot of new information. A solid, well thought out book.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Thought-provoking
By Ricardo Mio
A well-reasoned, well-researched, biographical sketch of three leading intellects of the founding generation, and a page-turner to boot. Of the book's 396 pages, historian Darren Staloff devotes 43 pages to the Enlightenment, 88 pages to Alexander Hamilton, 102 pages to John Adams, and 128 pages to Thomas Jefferson. If you've ever dreamed of spending an evening with these distinguished Americans to understand what made them tick, Staloff delivers. Harmilton and Jefferson are charming and brilliant--and ultimately inflexible in their beliefs--while Adams is decidedly contrarian, brutally honest, and his own man. In Stalof's narrative, Adams' prickly personality rankles but he's the one you come away respecting most.
The chapter on Alexander Hamilton is mostly about Enlightenment economic principles and how Hamilton as Secretary of the Treasury applied them in resolving the young nation's crushing war debt and thereby jump-starting American capitalism. Hamilton was a visionary intent on recasting the nation's economy, from one of agriculture and IOUs to one of manufacturing and liquid capital. Hamilton may not have been an egalitarian, but he saw his economic policies as having a leveling effect on society. He did not want money tied up in land or hoarded by the wealthy few, but put to work as investment capital, free-flowing and changing hands, rewarding the initiative of anyone willing to work hard to get ahead. Hamilton was among the first abolitionists, pointing out that slavery was not cost-effective and a waste of human talent, and that African-Americans did in fact possess the same capacity for intellectual growth as those of European stock (a revolutionary idea that Jefferson would not or could not accept). Hamilton may have spoken like an elitist, but his economic policies were color-blind and class-free and therefore democratic. More than all other founders, Hamilton personafied Enlightenment ideals.
John Adams, on the other hand, grew skeptical of Enlightenment ideals, especially after his time in Europe and meeting Rousseau. He came to loathe Franklin, Hamilton and even Jefferson, until his last years when he and Jefferson renewed their friendship through a series of now-famous letters. Adams was that rarest of individuals--an honest man--and came through for his country when it counted most. While in Europe he negotiated a series of loans with a consortium of Dutch financiers that proved vital to sustaining both the confederation government and the federal government that replaced it. Without the loans it's unlikely Hamilton's economic policies would have had the chance to work. As president Adams opposed Hamilton (and his own party) by negotiating the controversial Treaty of Mortefontaine thereby ending the Quasi-War with France. It split the Federalists and cost Adams a second term as president but history has vindicated his decision. Adams lived to see Jefferson get all the credit for the Declaration of Independence, his "Thoughts on Government" be eclipsed by Thomas Paine's "Common Sense," and his "Defense of the Constitution" and "Discourses on Davila" be dwarfed by "The Federalist" papers. He was correct when he predicted, "Mausoleums, statutes, and monuments will never be erected to me." It was not easy being John Adams.
As with John Adams, France had a transforming effect on Thomas Jefferson. Unlike Adams he embraced Rousseau's romantic notions, tweaked them a bit and made them his own. Jefferson was an artist, mathematician, poet, dreamer, politician and, shall I say it, space cadet. He embraced John Locke but never warmed up to Adam Smith and David Hume. He was a purist who demonized anyone who opposed him politically. To paraphrase Walter Lippmann, he was captive of the pictures in his head. Like all successful presidents that followed him, he spoke like a Jeffersonian (advocating a small federal government) and acted like a Hamiltonian (expanding the powers of the presidency), the Louisiana Purchase being a prime example. Jefferson acknowledged that slavery was a great evil and devised a highly idealistic and thus unworkable plan for its abolishment. In the end, however, Jefferson was a staunch believer in states' rights and remained highly incensed with anyone who criticized "the peculiar institution" of slavery. He could never reconcile the world with the images in his head.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson: The Politics of Enlightenment & the American Founding
By djwatkins487
Like few other countries, the United States was founded upon principles. Not religion, conquest, hegemony, or monarchy. The author provides us with support to illustrate that many of these principles take root in the English Enlightenment (1680's-1800). This was a time in which thinkers and philosophes garnered the self-awareness and democratic principles that swept the diaspora and published them in mass (thanks the evolving printing press). Through essays, newspapers, broadsides, and art, enlightened thinkers were able to coerce public opinion into a formidable force like never before. The movement created a perfect storm in the colonies when men such as Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams harnessed its power in the wake of British dominance. Staloff shows just what principles each of the three founders embraced and how this influence helped to shape our nation. Hamilton's embrace of commerce, urbanity, and finance provided a solid structure for the young republic. Adams' belief in the distribution of information (through newspapers and schools), federalism, and truth helped form a moral foundation. And Jefferson's politics of principles (based upon agrarianism and democracy) created the romantic idealism about what the United States of American stands for acted as an adhesive to hold the country together through the Revolution and the subsequent founding (and lasted through the Civil War and the changes of the twentieth century). A must read for those interested in the principles on which our country was founded.
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