Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance That Forged America

by Stephen F. Knott, Tony Williams Narrated by Ron Butler

Overview

In the wake of the American Revolution, the Founding Fathers faced a daunting task: overcome their competing visions to build a new nation, the likes of which the world had never seen. Washington and Hamilton chronicles the unlikely collaboration between two conflicting characters working together to protect their hard-won freedoms. Yet while Washington and Hamilton's different personalities often led to fruitful collaboration, their conflicting ideals also tested the boundaries of their relationship-and threatened the future of the new republic. From the rumblings of the American Revolution through the fractious Constitutional Convention and America's turbulent first years, this captivating history reveals the stunning impact of this unlikely duo that set the United States on the path to becoming a superpower.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Stephen Knott and Tony Williams offer a splendid joint biography of America's founding statesmen, the crucial duo that forged a national constitutional republic — from a revolutionary war against a superpower, through a failed trial of a constitution, to the Constitution that endures to this day.
" - Law and Liberty

"An elegant dual study resurrects Alexander Hamilton as one of George Washington's most valued advisers...Knott and Williams expertly show how Hamilton was often attacked because Washington was untouchable. " - Kirkus Reviews

"Williams and Knott's thesis-that Washington and Hamilton built the institutions that led to the United States emerging as a superpower in the 20th century-adds a new angle to the enduring public fascination with the founding fathers." - Publishers Weekly

"This readable narrative successfully describes the ways in which the 'indispensable alliance' between Washington and Hamilton was a significant factor in America's founding." - Library Journal

"A splendid joint biography of America's founding statesmen...studies the volatile but ultimately durable alliance of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, showing that constitutional statesmanship is not some mythical creature. " - Paul Carrese - Library of Law and Liberty

"The authors themselves collaborate well in Washington and Hamilton. Their clear and consistent prose, coupled with a heavy reliance on primary sources and wide range of carefully chosen secondary ones, dispel any notion that a work of history must trade off scholarship for accessibility...the result is a book well suited to both novices needing sufficient background to gain a full understanding and academics in need of an authoritatively referenced, thoughtfully analytical account." - Journal of the American Revolution

"There is much good sense in the authors' concluding opinion, that Americans would do well to rediscover the role that the team of Washington and Hamilton played in creating "a strong union." " - The Weekly Standard

"Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America" is not yet another life of Hamilton, nor is it a joint biography of Washington and Hamilton. Instead, it is the history of a remarkable collaboration between two very different individuals - part odd couple, part dynamic duo - that resulted in a joint achievement neither the senior partner (Washington) nor the junior partner (Hamilton) could have accomplished alone." - The Washington Times

"The musical's game-changing, sometimes fraught father-son relationship fires up "Washington & Hamilton: The Alliance That Forged America." Two historians, Canton resident Stephen F. Knott and Tony Williams, cover the pair's shared depths of ambition and honor, plus their battlefield-deepened bond. " - Boston Globe

"This lesson in truly human, collaborative greatness is brought home to us in the context of our own regime and our own history by Stephen Knott and Tony Williams's excellentstudy,Washington and Hamilton: The Alliance that Forged America...as Knott and Williams's title reminds us, and as their book amply demonstrates, this great achievement was possible only on the basis of the close cooperation of our first president and his chief minister, our first secretary of the treasury.
" - Carson Holloway, author of Hamilton versus Jefferson in the Washington Administrationand Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska at Omaha

NOVEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

While Alexander Hamilton has recently captured the nation’s imagination through the Tony-winning musical, this audiobook gives listeners a more thorough examination of the complicated relationship between Hamilton and George Washington. Ron Butler’s narration draws listeners in as he tells the story of these Founding Fathers from their first meeting through their collaborations and conflicts as they both played their parts in creating our government. Butler’s performance adds a layer of authenticity to the story of these two influential men. His clear, distinct voice and tone will keep listeners engaged as they follow America’s birth through the stories of Washington and Hamilton. A.G.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2015-06-17
An elegant dual study resurrects Alexander Hamilton as one of George Washington's most valued advisers. Though it is difficult to add any new information to the history of the framers' relationships to each other, Knott (National Security Affairs/United States Naval War Coll.; Rush to Judgment: George W. Bush, the War on Terror, and His Critics, 2012, etc.) and Williams (The Jamestown Experiment: The Remarkable Story of the Enterprising Colony and the Unexpected Results that Shaped America, 2011, etc.), the professional development director at the Bill of Rights Institute, attribute the ratification of the Constitution, among other key events, to the professional, enduring friendship between these two key players. Of vastly different backgrounds and ages, Washington and Hamilton were nonetheless ambitious men of the Enlightenment who cared deeply about honor at all cost. Both men's personalities and careers were defined by war; as Washington's aide de camp, Hamilton distinguished himself for his bravery under fire. Although the two were somewhat estranged immediately after the war, they both came to the conclusion during the Continental Congress that "the common good necessitated a stronger national government instead of a government controlled by the narrow, self-interested states." Re-energized by their shared vision, they both threw their weight behind ratification—Washington by his sheer dignity and authority, Hamilton through his Federalist Papers. Indeed, Hamilton's insistence that Washington become the first president, as well as his essays on the office itself, would allow Washington to embody that "indispensable" role. Although not Washington's first cabinet choice for secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton would masterly define the role through his creation of a national bank, among other accomplishments. The authors move chronologically, carefully sifting the evidence of Hamilton's indispensability to the president and his loyalty in the face of increasing partisanship by Thomas Jefferson's Republicans. Washington repeatedly called on Hamilton's advice—e.g., regarding the Jay Treaty—and enlisted him to assist with the crafting of his farewell address. Knott and Williams expertly show how Hamilton was often attacked because Washington was untouchable.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940175544948
Publisher:	Dreamscape Media
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

Americans have perennially been fascinated with our Founding Fathers. For example, the amicable relationship between Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, or the volatile relationship of Jefferson and John Adams, has captured the American imagination for almost two hundred years. Many excellent books about these partnerships have been written in addition to individual biographies of each and practically every Founding Father himself.

But one of the more important founding collaborations has been overlooked by readers: the unlikely partnership of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. This extraordinary alliance between a wealthy Virginia planter and a brash immigrant from the Caribbean helped to win the Revolutionary War and establish a "new order for the ages." These men fought together for the better part of twenty-five years to win independence and forge a new nation. Indeed, no other founding collaboration was as important to achieving victory and nationhood as Washington and Hamilton's.

Theirs was an unlikely alliance, for George Washington and Alexander Hamilton could not have been more different. Washington was a gentleman farmer from the patrician colony of Virginia and the owner of a great estate enriched by the labor of African slavery. As a rising member of the Virginia gentry, he satisfied the expectations of his station by entering into public service. Hamilton, on the other hand, was an illegitimate child-the "bastard brat of a Scotch peddler," as John Adams brusquely put it once-and an immigrant from the West Indies. A self-made man, he made his way to America on his own and earned his positions in the army and the government. Despite their differences, Washington and Hamilton shared a lot of common ground. They collaboratively pursued their vision of a continental republic throughout the Revolutionary War and through the founding of the nation. They both embraced the revolutionary ideals of the era, though with Hamilton usually playing a subordinate role to Washington, who was seen as essential to the successful creation of America.

If George Washington was the "indispensable man" of the American founding, then Washington and Hamilton's collaboration was the "indispensable alliance" that determined the outcome of the fight for (and founding of) the United States. This is not to diminish the other important relationships that reveal much about the American founding: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson crafted the Declaration of Independence, suffered a partisan rupture, and wrote a famous exchange of letters discussing the nature of the Revolution. Hamilton and Jefferson feuded heatedly for years over how best to preserve republican principles and offered contrasting visions of American institutions. Fellow Virginians James Madison and Jefferson struggled for liberty in Virginia and then bolstered each other as they fought what they perceived to be dark forces that threatened the republican principles of the new nation.

What makes Washington and Hamilton unique from these other founding collaborations was that their bond was forged in the crucible of the Revolutionary War. Unlike their great contemporaries, Washington and Hamilton saw war up close and personal; they were brothers in arms in a sense, and as any combat veteran will attest, battle is a bonding experience like no other. Their mutual experiences helped them form the core cadre of leadership in the struggle for independence from Great Britain and win the war against overwhelming odds. They drove the nationalist forces that would culminate in a more perfect union formed at the Constitutional Convention and ratified in 1788. They breathed life into the institutions of the early republic while setting important precedents as president and secretary of the treasury. Thus, their joint efforts can be seen as the "indispensable alliance" of the founding. Their story has all the elements of a Shakespearean drama-war, the quest for fame, scandal, the birth of a new nation. Additionally, Washington and Hamilton's story bolsters the somewhat unfashionable notion that the actions of great individuals can influence the course of history.

The months in which they first met remain shrouded in mystery, and little of what they wrote, especially in the early years of their relationship, reveals anything beyond a professional collaboration. How then can we describe their relationship? The word "friendship" does not seem to apply. Indeed, one wonders whether Washington can accurately be described as having any friends. He was purposefully distant and aloof as he jealously guarded his reputation, rarely letting his guard down, even with those who were considered intimates. He constantly warned others about the dangers of familiarity and scrupulously kept his relations formal. Hamilton, for his part, had some very close friends, such as John Laurens, and often gushed with emotions characteristic of eighteenth-century romanticism. But he never expressed himself in that way with Washington.

Washington and Hamilton may not have been best friends for the entire time they knew each other, but they shared a strong and lasting admiration, trust, and even affection for each other that had a significant impact upon the country. Some have described the childless Washington as playing the role of a surrogate father to the illegitimate Hamilton. Richard Brookhiser, in his excellent study of George Washington and fatherhood, notes the "group of surrogate children was his staff during the Revolutionary War, which he called ‘his family.'" This view probably comes closest to the mark, since Hamilton and the other staff members deferred to their "father" with respect and admiration for his virtue, though at times engaging in youthful rebellion. Many interpretations related to Washington's surrogate fatherhood for Hamilton border on the Freudian and offer little insight; for instance, Pulitzer Prize—winning author Ron Chernow argued that Hamilton had "suppressed Oedipal rage" toward Washington. Hamilton may have been driven incessantly by the desire for honor and glory, and this may have impeded his relationship with Washington, but Hamilton (unlike John Adams and others) was not competitive with Washington.

Perhaps it would be best to leave the term describing Washington and Hamilton's collaboration inexact. We might revel in the mystery. In the end, the story of their collaboration is what matters: it is not only interesting and dramatic, it is also essential to understanding how America came to be the great nation it is today. Their characters were animated by different qualities, they often reached conflicting conclusions, and they lent different abilities in the service of the republic. Nevertheless, they were both guided by a sense of American nationalism, working closely together to create an enduring republic that guaranteed liberty to its citizens. Thus, as we explore their special collaboration here, we will use the terms "friendship" and "partnership" interchangeably throughout the book, while recognizing the limitations of both terms in providing a precise understanding of their relationship. In the end, it is clear there was a genuine bond between the pair, and together they defeated the superpower of their day and founded a nation that became the superpower of our time.

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