American Machiavelli: Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of U.S. Foreign Policy, and: The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America's Most Elusive Founding Father (review)

Abstract

American Machiavelli: Alexander and Origins of U.S. Foreign Policy. By John Lamberton Harper. (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Pp. xii, 347. Illustrations, Cloth, $30.00.)The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: Life and Legacy of America's Most Elusive Founding Father. Edited by Douglas Ambrose and Robert W. T. Martin. (New York, NY: New York University Press, 2006. Pp. x, 299. Cloth, $45.00.)Reviewed by Kevin M. GannonGiven current deluge of books about The Founders-their virtues, relationships, honor, public lives, private lives, accomplishments, legacies, scandals, duels, and seemingly anything else Founder-related-it is appropriate to ask whether this burgeoning literature really needs two more volumes about Alexander Hamilton. Numerous critics have characterized surfeit of books about as Founders chic a fad that serves only to obscure much of wider and more meaningful aspects of early republic's history. Yet still they come, and people still buy them. Clearly there is an abiding interest in Revolutionaryera elite that seems unlikely to wane any time soon. But criticisms associated with pejorative Founders chic are, in cases, salient. Books on founding elite run real risk of focusing so narrowly upon a small (albeit disproportionately powerful) group of individuals (almost always men) as to eclipse thoughts, ideals, motivations, and actions of other 99 percent of population. question is one of balance. founding elite was made up of powerful men, and their ideologies and actions had a profound influence on public sphere that belied their small numbers. But they did not operate in a vacuum, and paying attention to this reality is factor that defines better, and more worthwhile, treatments of founding elite.The two volumes under review here fall into that category. For a number of reasons, Alexander has become a figure of fascination for scholars and wider public. His advocacy of an active and powerful government in face of locally oriented opposition speaks directly to tensions between liberty and order central to American polity, then and now. His significant (some would argue dominant) role in shaping foreign policy and defining U.S. international interests resonates loudly with current concerns. His Caribbean background and cosmopolitan worldview seem to render him in, but sometimes not entirely of, Founding elite. These two volumes-one a partial other a collection of essays stemming from a conference on Hamilton-address many faces of Alexander and facets of his impact upon a diverse array of fundamental issues involved in shaping of early republic.Diplomatic historian John Lamberton Harper says that there is still room for valuable work on Hamilton; indeed, he asserts, the new literature, like old, is mostly hostile or partisan (2). (It should be noted that Harper's work slightly antedates Ron Chernow's biography, which is neither of those.)1 While Chernow's work is meant as a comprehensive life-and-times treatment of its subject, Harper's primary (though not exclusive) focus is on Hamilton's role in shaping and implementing foreign policy for infant American republic. Where Harper's study is truly original is in its explicit paralleling of and sixteenthcentury Florentine politico Niccolo Machiavelli. According to Harper, Hamilton and Machiavelli, father of continental realism, inhabited same moral and intellectual world, one where emerging states had to adapt themselves to law of jungle and look to successful models to survive (5). two shared remarkably similar views on human nature, politics, and statecraft, as well as a personal set of visceral likes and dislikes; in particular, they deplored 'middle path' (5). comparison is suggestive not only because of similarities Harper identifies-though they are quite striking-but also due to each man's particular context. …