Today I read that Alexander Hamilton, one of the "founding fathers" of the United States, is making a comeback first as the subject of a Broadway musical and secondly because an EU financial project is being described as "Hamiltonian."
On this blog, we have referred to Hamiltonians. See Distance And History. We were surprised to find a reference to "Jeffersonians" in the blurb for Poul Anderson's New America. See Three Paperbacks I. However, we explained this reference in Three Paperbacks III.
The author of a newspaper editorial referring to Hamilton's current comeback will not suspect that at least one of his readers makes connections with future histories by James Blish and Poul Anderson. Sf fans see the present in the light of the future, not any one particular future, just the fact that we are going somewhere:
"We do not know where we are going. Nor do most of us care. For us it is enough that we are on our way.
"-Le Matelot."
-Poul Anderson, "Hiding Place" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 555-609 AT p. 556.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And an article I read on NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE denies the Europeans are understanding Alexander Hamilton CORRECTLY. The fiscal policies Hamilton favored were NOT like the mess the EU made with its single currency. For one thing, the currency reform advocated by Hamilton WORKED, while the Euro has been a disastrous flop. The Euro has failed because it has become both a strait jacket choking the southern European nations and becoming a ruinous drain on the stabler, more soundly run northern European nations. Far better to dump the Euro!
Ad astra! Sean
Hamilton's reforms were based on the Bank of England its funded debt; also he nationalized the State debts from the Revolutionary war.
Incidentally, Hamilton was intimately involved in drafting the Constitution; Jefferson wasn't, and never really liked it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I think some of the reasons for Jefferson's reservations about the US Constitution was from him thinking it gave the national gov't too much power. An idea I have some sympathy for!
Ad astra! Sean
Not that his reservations restrained him all that much when -he- was President.
Jefferson was the classic example of someone who believed what he needed to believe.
Eg., he hated the idea of a strong Navy, and preferred to rely on (cheap) gunboats for defense. Which proved to be absolutely useless, along with his beloved militia.
The only parts of the US war effort that worked well in 1812 were the ones the Federalists built, like the frigates (all of which Jefferson tried to scrap).
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