I don’t read much non-fiction. Lately, though, I’ve been on a bit of a political kick and I’ve always enjoyed history, so why not combine the two? I just finished reading Hamilton’s Curse by Thomas DiLorenzo. Wow! Warning: If the only American “history” you’ve studied has been provided to you by our government’s schools, then this book might turn some of what you took for granted on its head.
I’m not going to say the book was easy to get through. The material was amazingly detailed, fantastic, and engrossing, but some of it was so very challenging to read. I have to admit I dozed off a few times while reading it. Don’t let that detract from the book, though–that was more a failing of me and the fact that Rebekah still doesn’t sleep very well.
I can’t even do justice to what Mr. DiLorenzo presents in the book. From the fabrication of “implied powers” to the General Welfare Clause to how Lincoln was one of the worst Presidents our nation has seen, the author presents Hamilton’s America from the early days where he battled daily against Jefferson (his arch political rival) to long after his death as his ideas were implemented by the power elite in Washington. It is a fascinating journey of how we came from an affiliation of self-governing states to the bloated, bureaucratic, overbearing central government we have today.
If you have any interest in liberty in America, American history, and politics, you owe it to yourself to read this book with an open mind. You might just come out of it with a different opinion of Alexander Hamilton than our country’s public (and private) schools have conditioned you to believe.