Jefferson vs. Hamilton: Confrontations that Shaped a Nation

by Noble E. Cunningham Jr.

Interweaving more than 40 documents, Jefferson vs. Hamilton follows the lives and careers each man from their youth, through the Revolutionary War, to the death of Hamilton in 1804, focusing on their differing views of society and government in the formative years of the new American nation.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 17, 2000

About the author

One of the foremost scholars of the life and thought of Thomas Jefferson, Noble E. Cunningham, Jr. served with the U.S. Army, 1944-1946, and received a B.A. from the University of Louisville in 1948. He earned his M.A. (1949) and Ph.D., with honors, from Duke University (1952). He taught at Wake Forest College and the University of Richmond before joining the history department of the University of Missouri at Columbia in 1964. There he served as associate professor, full professor, the Byler Distinguished Professor (1980-1981), the Frederick A. Middlebush Professor (1986-1988), and the Curators’ Professor of History (1988-1997). In 1997 he became Curators’ Professor of History Emeritus.

Cunningham was the recipient of several major awards and fellowships during his career. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and received fellowships from the American Philosophical Society, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the National Historical Publications Commission, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He was a recipient of the University of Missouri Thomas Jefferson Award, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Medal, and the Missouri Conference of History Award. In 1994 he was selected to attend a formal dinner at the White House with other Jefferson scholars and President Clinton.

Cunningham’s exhaustive research in the Library of Congress and the National Archives underlay his pathbreaking explorations of early nineteenth-century American politics. His insights provided the foundation for the work of today’s historians of Jefferson and politics. Cunningham’s prolific scholarship has shaped our understanding not just of Jefferson but of the very nature and development of party politics in the early Republic. Cunningham’s first book, The Jeffersonian Republicans: The Formation of Party Organization, 1789-1801, was published exactly a half century ago. He proceeded to follow the Jeffersonian Republicans as they became the majority party in Congress and took control of the presidency in 1801. The Jeffersonian Republicans in Power: Party Operations, 1801-1809 (1963) examined issues of patronage (both the formation of a policy and the difficulties of putting it into practice), party machinery on the national and regional levels, and the broader subject of the party and the press, a topic that is significant for early American politics. The Process of Government Under Jefferson (1978) remains the cornerstone for any analysis of Jefferson’s presidency and indeed teaches us much about the evolution of the institution of the American presidency. It was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Over the course of his work, which included more than a dozen books and numerous articles, Cunningham developed a profound respect for the third president’s abilities to build a political party and a consensus. His biography of Jefferson, In Pursuit of Reason (1987), was translated into several languages, including Chinese.

—Barbara Oberg
Princeton University

Reviews

[Monique · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent exploration of the issues that Jefferson and Hamilton debated over in the early years of the American Republic, such as banking, foreign relations, and the extent of government power. Over two hundred years later, the intellectual battles that Jefferson and Hamilton fought over the future of the American government remains relevant, especially in the current political and economic climate.

This book is unique in that Cunningham allows the founders to speak for themselves by reprinting the letters that Hamilton and Jefferson sent to their friends and peers. After each letter, Cunningham discusses the context in which the letters were written and their historical significance. I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the Revolutionary War and the Early Republic period, as well as to anyone who wishes to gain a greater understanding of the issues which continue to affect our country today.

[Dayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Concise, and my first introduction to Alexander Hamilton.

[TrumanCoyote · Rating 3 out of 5]

Noble doesn't really add terribly much to the proceedings (and indeed a good portion of the time keeps us manifestly in the dark regarding the duo's careers, especially Hamilton's). Anyway, the fur was definitely flying the farther we got along! Hamilton comes off looking like a real rabble-rouser, and it's hard to blame Burr for getting pissed off, just from what was mentioned here. Jefferson hardly seems faultless either, with his whole head-in-the-clouds demeanor (Alexander's quote about Tom being angry deep down inside was rather interesting).

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of primary documents detailing the irreconcilable philosophies of centralization and liberty. The compilation offers a glimpse at the ideas that led to the War Between the States.