American Machiavelli: Alexander Hamilton and the Origins of U.S. Foreign Policy

by John Lamberton Harper

• ISBN13: 9780521708746
• ISBN10: 0521708745
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-30
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Alexander Hamilton rose from his humble beginnings as an illegitimate West Indian orphan and emigrant to become the premier statebuilder and strategic thinker of the American Founding generation. This is the first detailed narrative study of his foreign policy role and ideas to appear in more than thirty years. It focuses on Hamilton's controversial activities as a key member of President George Washington's cabinet and as an aspiring military leader in the 1790s, a decade of profound division over the shape and powers of the Federal government, and US policy toward the warring powers of Europe. Drawing parallels between Hamilton and the Florentine diplomatist and thinker, Niccolò Machiavelli, prize-winning historian John Lamberton Harper offers an insightful and accessible account of the origins of Hamilton's outlook, his bitterly personal rivalries with Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, and his indispensable part in designing and implementing US foreign policy.

Author Biography

John Lamberton Harper is Professor of American Foreign Policy and European Studies at the Bologna Center of The Johns Hopkins University Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Coming of Necessity
From Providence into Fortune, 1757 (?)-1781	p. 11
Prepared To Be Not Good, 1781-1788	p. 26
Battle Lines are Drawn
At Washington's Side Again, 1789	p. 43
Hamilton versus the Virginians, 1789-1791	p. 55
The Nootka Sound Crisis, Part One: The Morris Mission	p. 65
Nootka Sound, Part Two: The View from New York	p. 74
Liaisons Dangereuses, 1791-1792	p. 88
Seizing the Helm
The Birth of American Neutrality, February-May1793	p. 103
"A Most Distressing Dilemma," May-December 1793	p. 115
Hamilton and the Crisis of 1794	p. 127
The Jay Treaty	p. 140
Informal Adviser to the Prince
Return to Not-So-Private Life, 1794-1795	p. 153
"Camillus" into the Breach	p. 163
A High-Stakes Game: Washington's Farewell Address, 1796	p. 171
Transition to the New Regime, 1796-1797	p. 180
A Prince in His Own Right?
Hamilton and Adams: The Background	p. 191
Hamilton's "Grand Plan"	p. 205
Hamilton and His Army, Part One, 1797-1798	p. 213
Hamilton and His Army, Part Two, 1798-1799	p. 224
Killing Two Birds with One Stone, 1799	p. 237
The Lesser of Evils
1800 and After	p. 251
From Fortune into Providence	p. 265
Conclusion: Hamilton Then and Now	p. 271
Notes	p. 277
Bibliography	p. 329
Index	p. 337
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