#1533 A Conversation with Hamilton Scholar Hal Bidlack
Listening to America
Listening to America
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 7 February 2023
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Clay Jenkinson visits with Alexander Hamilton scholar Hal Bidlack exploring the character of Hamilton, his rags to riches story, his essential friendship with George Washington, but also his self-destructive prickliness about his honor. The wide-ranging conversation inevitably leads to the dueling grounds of Wehaukon, New Jersey, where on July 11, 1804, the sitting vice president of the United States killed the former Secretary of the Treasury? They attempt to figure out why John Adams drove Hamilton to distraction. Was Hamilton in love with his wife's sister? Hal says no. Bidlack is a former professor of political science at the US Air Force Academy.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello everyone and welcome to this special edition of the Thomas Jefferson R. I'm Clay |
| 0:07.8 | Jenkinson. David Swenson is taking a break. I have the honor today of talking with one |
| 0:14.0 | of my old dear friends, Hal Bidlach of Colorado Springs. Hal, among other things, was a |
| 0:20.2 | U.S. Air Force officer. He taught at the U.S. Air Force Academy. He's more recently |
| 0:25.0 | a political columnist and a historian. Hal, welcome to the Thomas Jefferson R. |
| 0:29.5 | Wonderful to be back. Is that a fair assessment of your bio? I think so. I think so. Air |
| 0:35.5 | Force and 25 years as a military officer teaching at the Air Force Academy. And a few things |
| 0:41.4 | since then. Now you are writing what a weekly column twice weekly for it's an I think |
| 0:47.4 | called Colorado politics. It's an interesting blend of the old and the new. They took a newspaper |
| 0:53.1 | that was a weekly political commentary that went back 140 years in Colorado and blended it |
| 0:59.1 | with online presence to create this new thing which is still a weekly publication but |
| 1:04.2 | also a website. So I published to the website twice weekly and to the print edition whenever |
| 1:09.7 | they need more room to wrap fish. And if people want to go read some of what you've written |
| 1:14.4 | where can they go? They can go to Colorado politics.com and that's where it lives. So |
| 1:19.7 | we're here to talk about none other than Alexander Hamilton. Fine topic. Among other things |
| 1:24.9 | you are a Hamilton pretender, a performer and impersonator, a reenactor, which is your |
| 1:30.4 | favorite term. The audience should know that it's entirely your fault. We got to know each |
| 1:36.1 | other when I saw years ago when I was in charge of the introduction to American government |
| 1:40.7 | class at the Air Force Academy. I saw one of your performances on C-SPAN and I reached |
| 1:45.9 | out to your agent to see and we ultimately brought you to talk to the entire 1100 cadets |
| 1:51.8 | taking that introductory class as Thomas Jefferson. And we kind of struck a good friendship |
| 1:57.1 | up that I've treasured over the decades. And you actually are the one who convinced me |
... |
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