Alexander Hamilton’s Broadway Musical is Great, but Brion McClanahan Thinks He Screwed Up America

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2017

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

He’s the subject of a hit Broadway musical, the face on the ten-dollar bill, and one of the most popular Founding Fathers. But what do you really know about Alexander Hamilton? In this interview with author and historian Brion McClanahan, he argues that Hamilton was no American hero. Brion says that America’s beloved Hamilton actually spent most of his life working to make sure citizens and states could not hold the federal government accountable. His policies set a path for presidents to launch secret and illegal wars, and he wanted to make sure American citizens couldn’t do a thing to stop the government’s overreach. Hamilton was a duplicitous man whose personality and ambition led to an America and a Constitution at odds with the one he publicly supported in 1788 and that the American public bought as a result. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE How Alexander Hamilton Screwed Up America Brion's website TO HELP OUT THE SHOW Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher

Transcript

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0:00.0	War has played a key role in the history of the United States, from the nation's founding right down to the present.
0:06.2	Wars made the United States independent, kept it together, increased its size, and established it as a global superpower.
0:13.2	Hi, I'm James Early, host of the Key Battles of American History podcast.
0:17.6	In each episode, I discuss American history through the lens of the most important battles of America's Wars.
0:23.2	To start listening now, go to pathanonpodcast.com or search Key Battles of American History on your favorite podcast platform.
0:32.0	They were some of the most powerful men who've ever lived. They waged war, forged peace, and altered the
0:37.3	fates of billions of people. And yet, they were just as human, just as flawed as you and me.
0:42.6	They were the presidents of the United States, and they are the subjects of the history podcast, this American president.
0:48.5	In each episode of this American president, we explore how flawed men have managed this awesome responsibility.
0:54.8	To listen now, go to pathanonpodcast.com or search this American president on your favorite podcast platform.
1:04.4	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast. The unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes,
1:11.0	Mythbusts Historical Lies, and rediscoveres the forgotten stories that changed our world.
1:17.6	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
1:25.5	If you've listened to this podcast for a while, you know that I'm really into history.
1:29.4	But I'm enough of a realist to know that history isn't very sexy, and it can appear weird and boring
1:34.8	to a lot of people. If I talk about how cool the Federalist papers are or the migration
1:40.7	of your Asian Step No Mads, you're going to look at me pretty weird and maybe you have a right to do so.
1:45.9	But in the last few years, there is one aspect of history that has been really sexy,
1:50.3	and that is the Broadway musical Hamilton, specifically Lin Manuel Miranda's depiction of Hamilton.
1:56.2	In the musical, he's shown as an immigrant who arrives to America penniless,
2:01.1	pulls himself up by his bootstraps, bite slavery, and is really a modern day person
2:07.6	lassied back into the past. Now, of course, the musical really doesn't aim for historical
	...

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