32 replies to this topic

[carbro]

dirac, on Jul 22 2005, 03:23 PM, said:

I’m glad to hear the Historical Society’s exhibition is a good one.  Its subtitle, “The Man Who Made Modern America,”  seemed ahistorical and inflated to me, and not a good omen.

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The point of the title was that Hamilton basically estabished the whole system of banking and finance that we now have (in other words, American capitalism), and he, better than any of his well known contemporaries, understood that the future of the new nation was urban and industrial, not rural and agricultural.

[Helene]

carbro, on Jul 22 2005, 01:16 PM, said:

dirac, on Jul 22 2005, 03:23 PM, said:

I’m glad to hear the Historical Society’s exhibition is a good one.  Its subtitle, “The Man Who Made Modern America,”  seemed ahistorical and inflated to me, and not a good omen.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The point of the title was that Hamilton basically estabished the whole system of banking and finance that we now have (in other words, American capitalism), and he, better than any of his well known contemporaries, understood that the future of the new nation was urban and industrial, not rural and agricultural.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

To put this in context, while I don't think that Hamilton foresaw the Industrial Revolution, he did understand the necessity of a diverse economy, with manufacturing as a mitigation against the vicissitudes of a farm and small merchant economy, as well as the means to reduce dependence on England, which was still considerable after the Revolution.

Given the banking and market system he set up, and his understanding of debt financing, I don't think the subtitle is an exaggeration, regardless of how we feel about the current state of American capitalism.

[dirac]

Well.....it wouldn’t be an exaggeration, so much as ahistorical and imprecise and therefore misleading -- depending, of course, on how it’s worked out and explained in the exhibition.  The contrast between Hamilton’s view of America’s future and Jefferson’s more pastoral one has been much discussed and has relevance to us today, but not that literally.  If the exhibition does declare flatly that Hamilton created the "system we now have"  -- that is certainly debatable, to put it mildly......

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At your suggestion, I’m moving Cryptonomicon up in the rotation! I did enjoy what I'd gotten through, but lost momentum when I couldn’t fit it into my carry-on during my last trip.

Good luck.  I don't think you'll be sorry, but you never know.  The thing with Stephenson is that you have to enjoy the digressions and the exposition as much as the plot.  It's okay to skip a bit, but there are risks involved in that you might miss something crucial.  Please report back!