Reviews and Comments

The author writes as a jurist, a legal scholar, a constitutionalist, a political scientist, and mostly an historian; he does not really write as a political philosopher and thus he does not articulates the ideas much further than what the source material provides.

He succeeded, with his erudition, the abundance of documentation, and his precise prose rich in vocabulary, in making me eager to read the original texts.

Applying a unique prism over 250 years of history has obvious limits. But it is nuance within and across the periods that made this journey interesting to me.

Some polarizations that I recalled, that I sometimes exagerate and for which I lack insight: Jefferson the anti-federalist and the champion of states' rights, versus Hamilton favoring a strong federal power; Jefferson pro-grassroots movements versus Hamilton pro-centralization of power in the hand of an elite; Jefferson seeing people as fundamentally good versus Hamilton viewing human nature as bad; Jefferson's democracy versus Hamilton's aristocracy; Jefferson's strict construction of the constitution versus Hamilton's liberal construction, i.e. in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions; Jefferson's particularism versus Hamilton's universalism, with positions pushed to the extreme that would lead for Jefferson to secession and balkanisation versus unification by force with Hamilton; Jefferson's enumerated powers versus Hamilton's implied powers e.g. in McCulloch versus Maryland; Jefferson seing a compact of sovereign states versus Hamilton viewing the union as one nation adopted by the people; Jefferson's departmental interpretation of the Supreme Court and his fear of a despotic oligarchy there, a.k.a. the government of judges versus Hamilton supporting an overarching power of SCOTUS; Jefferson's antisemitism versus Hamilton's philosemitism; Jefferson the rural versus Hamilton the urban; Jefferson the agriculturalist versus Hamilton the manufacturer; Jefferson the land owner versus Hamilton the financer.

As for parties: Jefferson the Republican-Democrat versus Hamilton the Federalist - XVIIIth USA; Jefferson the Democrat versus Hamilton the Whig - XIXth USA; Jefferson the Democrat versus Hamilton the Republican - XXth USA, and quite the inversion from the New Deal and Reagan; Jefferson the whig versus Hamilton the tory XVIIth UK; Jefferson for the French revolution versus Hamilton for the English parliamentary Monarchy.

Nuances for each one: Hamilton's preference for an hereditary monarch, less corruptible than an elective magistrate but his contant fear of a demagogue succeeding and turning into a tyrant. Jefferson the democrat versus Jefferson the libertarian.

In common: Both anti-demagogues, anti-caesarism, anti-bonapartism; Both living constitutionalist instead of being originalists; Both viscerally attached to liberty and to the union.

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