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Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

  • May 21, 2022
  • John Ferling
  • 984 responses.

Unlimited Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation - by John Ferling - Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation, Jefferson and Hamilton The Rivalry That Forged a Nation From the award winning author of Almost a Miracle and The Ascent of George Washington this is the rare work of scholarship that offers us irresistible human drama even as it enriches our understandin

  • Title: Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation
  • Author: John Ferling
  • ISBN: 9781608195428
  • Page: 131
  • Format: Kindle Edition

Unlimited Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation - by John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation, John Ferling, Jefferson and Hamilton The Rivalry That Forged a Nation From the award winning author of Almost a Miracle and The Ascent of George Washington this is the rare work of scholarship that offers us irresistible human drama even as it enriches our understanding of deep themes in our nation s history The decade of the s has been called the age of passion Fervor ran high as rival factions battled o Unlimited Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation - by John Ferling - Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation, Jefferson and Hamilton The Rivalry That Forged a Nation From the award winning author of Almost a Miracle and The Ascent of George Washington this is the rare work of scholarship that offers us irresistible human drama even as it enriches our understandin

  • Unlimited Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation - by John Ferling
    131 John Ferling
Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation

About "John Ferling"

  1. John Ferling

    John E Ferling is a professor emeritus of history at the University of West Georgia A leading authority on American Revolutionary history, he is the author of several books, including A Leap in the Dark The Struggle to Create the American Republic , Almost a Miracle The American Victory in the War of Independence , and his most recent work, The Ascent of George Washington The Hidden Political Genius of an American Icon He has appeared in television documentaries on PBS, the History Channel, C SPAN Book TV, and the Learning Channel.

984 Comments

  1. One of my professors in college was Broadus Mitchell He was the foremost Hamiltonian scholar of his day, author of multiple biographies of Hamilton and associates Not surprisingly, my freshman year at Hofstra s New College with Broadus Mitchell was an intensive study of Alexander Hamilton and the founding of America The textbook was surprise one of the several biographies of Hamilton authored by Broadus Mitchell.When I had was given the opportunity to review this book, I was intrigued I wondered [...]

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  2. Before John Ferling delves into the background, philosophies, and careers of his subjects in his JEFFERSON AND HAMILTON THE RIVALRY THAT FORGED A NATION he exposes the reader to a meditation on how the third president and the first Secretary of the Treasury have been evaluated by successive generations At the outset Jefferson was seen favorably as he was deemed to be a democratic populist who defended the liberties of all, while Hamilton was viewed as the spokesperson for the rich upper class o [...]

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  3. This book compares and contrasts the political viewpoints of Jefferson and Hamilton, starting with biographical background on each and then focusing on their time in Washington s cabinet and their political disagreements afterwards It is a readable study that is generally fair to its subjects Something about Hamilton and Jefferson seems to inspire their biographers to take sides even than 200 years later, so it is refreshing to get a balanced view I do take issue with the author s choice to fr [...]

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  4. Not an impressive work, I m afraid, because it seems to lack a purpose If it is a dual biography, it needs a lot of fleshing out I don t think anything was added to what Chernow said concerning Hamilton and a great deal was left out He certainly did not come alive on these pages and the issues Hamilton tackled are not presented in nearly as much depth The presentation on Jefferson comes to an end with the death of Hamilton, despite the fact that Jefferson s presidency continued for than four ye [...]

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  5. One could read the introduction to say the author believes Thomas Jefferson equals Bill Clinton and Alexander Hamilton equals George W Bush The introduction also contains the assertion that the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are born equal when it says we are created equal After that inauspicious start, the first two thirds of the book are well done, relatively concise, parallel biographies of the two title subjects Readers could pick up most of what they should know about t [...]

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  6. I love John Ferling as a writer I ve read a lot of his early American politics books, and for the most part, they re pretty good.This book was also pretty good I think my major complaint about it is actually the book title, which is Jefferson and Hamilton The Rivalry That Forged a Nation This was not really about their rivalry, and was a dual biography If we re looking into the rivalry between the two statesmen, then why was a play by play of the Revolutionary War necessary That was a pretty sl [...]

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  7. As an avid Hamiltonian I sought this book out for its unique take on the two Founders Unlike other reviewers who found the treatment of Hamilton incomplete, I enjoyed the author s approach which in my mind sought to describe the key aspects of both lives and their intertwining when it occurred I read Chernow when it appeared and other volumes to know enough of the detail of Hamilton s life In a relatively short 362 pages effort, Ferling nicely grasps the key elements of both mens personality and [...]

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  8. John Ferling, a respected scholar of the American Revolution, sets forth the ideological differences between two of our most influential Founding Fathers, and recounts the poisonous enmity between them that arose as a result The story is relevant even today, since the bitter partisan divide America is now experiencing is quite similar to what threatened to tear apart the fabric of the country apart in its infancy.Ferling provides a dispassionate i.e less hagiographic portrait of the two men tha [...]

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  9. This is a well researched book It compares and contrasts Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton The book begins by examining their early lives and aspirations Jefferson was the son of privilege and spending years reading and studying in his home after completing his formal education Hamilton came from humble, scandalous beginnings and was able to come to the American colonies to study due to the generous support of benefactors who recognized his intelligence and potential These men were major p [...]

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  10. Ferling has a solid reputation as a scholar, but I can t say I felt like I found that here This book was a mess I give it two stars only because it is, at least, reasonably researched I have several large issues with this book Firstly, the book is barely about the rivalry that forged a nation Second, it is quite obvious that Ferling considers Hamilton the villain and Jefferson the hero Third, I honestly don t think Ferling did a good job of understanding either character This book suffers from p [...]

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  11. I am glad I read this right after The Great Divide The Conflict between Washington and Jefferson that Defined a Nation, as it was fascinating to see two historians reach such different conclusions about Jefferson, Hamilton, and Washington based on the same documents This author states in the opening that he is quite fond of Jefferson but that his research led him to think kindly of Hamilton If so, then he must really not have thought much of him as the book is clearly biased towards Jefferson T [...]

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  12. Jefferson and Hamilton The Rivalry That Forged a Nation by John Ferling is a reasonable history book but disappointing in the sense that the rivalry between these two revolutionary founding fathers does not commence until about chapter 10 The first nine chapters provide a side by side biography of the two men but you would be better served by reading definitive biographies like Ron Chernow s Alexander Hamilton and either American Sphinx The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J Ellis and Th [...]

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  13. Quite fascinating While the author did stray into the area of personal opinion at times, whether for good or ill, I learned a great deal about not only both of these men, but also the times they lived through and some of their contemporaries Combined with other histories of the same time period, I now have a much broader and complete view of our countries beginnings and the Founding Fathers Ferling delves satisfyingly deep into motivations and the complexities of personality He gives the whys to [...]

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  14. Continuing my never ending fascination with this period in US history A well written book delving into the characters of two of the most brilliant albeit flawed founders We continue to love the idealism of Jefferson while living in a Hamiltonian world.

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  15. When people think of the founding fathers, the general impression is that these men were intelligent, idealistic people with a dispassionate attitudes These fathers have their different opinions on how the future nation would be founded, but any disagreements were gentlemanly and decent A cursory dig into history proves that our founding fathers could be as base and petty on a level that would rival that of a reality TV star Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton could not have come from diver [...]

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  16. A little too much time spent giving color to the personal lives of these two men and not enough time on their political differences.

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  17. Review Title The Enemy of My Enemy Is My EnemyI enjoyed this book, Jefferson and Hamilton John Ferling book The Rivalry That Forged a Nation I had previously read a fair amount about Jefferson including Thomas Jefferson The Art of Power by Jon Meacham However, I had never read a book dedicated to Hamilton This book has encouraged me to find such a book to learn about Hamilton.I have always felt Jefferson was complicated and a bit of an odd duck He is praised highly by many today, but there are [...]

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  18. If you were to peruse my bookshelves you would find a lot of fluff, and I don t mean dustbunnies, though you d likely find those too, along with a resting cat or two or three What you won t find a whole lot of are serious history books.Now, it s not because I hate history or something like that, butwell, there s always a lovely gardening book to read, or a mystery, or a romance, or the latest book of poetry History ends up towards the bottom of the stack.But I did enter to win this book, because [...]

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  19. Very interesting Obviously knew who both were, but didn t realize that Hamilton played such a big role in this country s development The differences between the two were enhanced by the author s over the top description of Hamilton s appearance and intelligence When the segment was about Hamilton, it kind of felt like I was reading a romance novel I got a bit tired of reading how exceptional he was, how beautiful and handsome and gifted and smart and blah blah blah Contrast that to the descripti [...]

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  20. An enjoyable read, relatively well footnoted and indexed Ferling does a good job bringing out what both men had in common, and works to be fair in treating their strengths, weaknesses, and legacies If there were a third titular character for this book it should be Washington, who gets a good deal of treatment here as well Ferling is at his weakest whenever he attempts to correlate contemporary politics to those of Hamilton Jefferson For instance, he seems to see no irony in the preface in quotin [...]

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  21. I thoroughly enjoyed this book as it chronicled in parallel the careers and personal lives of these great rivals Their competing political thought, to this day, continues as an undercurrent in American politics Overall, as I progressed through this book, I was starting to think that the author was favorably disposed to Jefferson and his egalitarian, limited government philosophy He does show in great detail the lengths by which, towards the end of his life, Hamilton was willing to go to thwart [...]

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  22. Well written and very informative book about two of the men whose competing visions of America s future shaped the America of today Indeed, the contentious issues of the 1790 s are the same as today Hamilton favored a strong central government, a central bank, encouragement of commerce and investors, and he distrusted democracy If Hamilton had had his way, the presidency and senators would have been elected for life Jefferson distrusted almost everything Hamilton favored, believing the United St [...]

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  23. Ferling s book contrasts the two men who were most responsible for the development of America s first two party system The book gives a brief biography of each man, but the details are very limited, especially of their early lives However, the book paints a vivid picture of Hamilton s personality, and how it combined with his war time experiences to shape his views and actions The picture of Jefferson is less clear, perhaps because he was a complex and guarded person The book failed to go into [...]

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  24. Once again, I m thwarted by the inability to give half stars I d have given this 3 1 2 rather than 4 After listening to the soundtrack to the Broadway show Hamilton half a dozen times, this book showed up on sale on It was a worthwhile purchase I didn t go into this with much knowledge about these men then given to one in high school I found this informative and presented interestingly I m glad I read it.

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  25. A very interesting portrait of the two men and their opposing views of what the new country should be I liked the way the author pointed to specific turning points and discussed what might have happened had they gone a different way For example, what if the Declaration of Independence had included Jefferson s passage about England forcing the evil of slavery on the colonies Note on the audiobook this narrator had a droning voice that took some getting used to.

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  26. I listened to this on Audiobook and confess that I fell asleep from time to time All the current interest in Hamilton prodded me to listen to this book, but the writing was at times dry.Focusing on the differences and rivalry between these two geniuses, Ferling does not hesitate to make them highly flawed men I added to my knowledge of both, but was left wanting to know of Hamilton I think that I will try his new biography.

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  27. One of the most entertaining and enlightening books that I have ever read, this biography of Jefferson and Hamilton is a great gift to better understanding of these vital figures, the times which made them, and what they made of their times.

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  28. As per the usual, I discover that our country was founded by brilliant, ambitious, selfish dicks Nostalgia is stupid, but being informed is a lost American tradition I loved the Ascent of Washington I am officially a Ferling fan I look forward to additional ascents.

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  29. An interesting book on 2 great Americans Every so often in American History government divides over 2 individuals and their ideas This is a good overview of 2 of them.

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