The Whiskey Rebellion: George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and the Frontier Rebels Who Challenged America's Newfound Sovereignty

by William Hogeland

A gripping and provocative tale of violence, alcohol, and taxes, The Whiskey Rebellion pits President George Washington and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton against angry, armed settlers across the Appalachians. Unearthing a pungent segment of early American history long ignored by historians, William Hogeland brings to startling life the rebellion that decisively contributed to the establishment of federal authority.

In 1791, at the frontier headwaters of the Ohio River, gangs with blackened faces began to attack federal officials, beating and torturing the collectors who plagued them with the first federal tax ever laid on an American product—whiskey. In only a few years, those attacks snowballed into an organized regional movement dedicated to resisting the fledgling government's power and threatening secession, even civil war.

With an unsparing look at both Hamilton and Washington—and at lesser-known, equally determined frontier leaders such as Herman Husband and Hugh Henry Brackenridge—journalist and popular historian William Hogeland offers an insightful, fast-paced account of the remarkable characters who perpetrated this forgotten revolution, and those who suppressed it. To Hamilton, the whiskey tax was key to industrial growth and could not be permitted to fail. To hard-bitten people in what was then the wild West, the tax paralyzed their economies while swelling the coffers of greedy creditors and industrialists. To President Washington, the settlers' resistance catalyzed the first-ever deployment of a huge federal army, led by the president himself, a military strike to suppress citizens who threatened American sovereignty.

Daring, finely crafted, by turns funny and darkly poignant, The Whiskey Rebellion promises a surprising trip for readers unfamiliar with this primal national drama—whose climax is not the issue of mere taxation but the very meaning and purpose of the American Revolution.

With three original maps by Jack Ryan.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Audiobook, Politics, Military History, American

320 pages, Hardcover

First published May 22, 2006

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written, thoroughly researched, non-fiction book. It is fast paced and gives a detailed account of the Whiskey Rebellion, the events preceding it, and the historical figures who featured prominently in it. Many thanks to the Museum of the American Revolution, whose newsletter I subscribe to, for the recommendation of this fascinating book. I listened to the audio book, and the narrator, Mr. Simon Vance, has a captivating voice and does an outstanding job.

[Theo Logos · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Whiskey Rebellion provides a great microcosm for viewing the early American republic. Erupting in 1794 on the frontier of Western Pennsylvania, it encapsulates the stories of the nation's transformation into a centralized, commercial power, the expansion of the nation westward, and the challenges presented to that new power by that expansion. It shows the demise of the radical populism of the Revolution and the rise of the conservative power of the creditor class. Alexander Hamilton, that machiavellian genius who was the architect of the emerging power of the commercial creditor class plays a central role, as does George Washington, aging and nearly ready to exit the world stage. To understand the Whiskey Rebellion is to understand the formation and development of our early republic.

William Hogeland's book is a first rate popular history of the Whiskey Rebellion with a definite point of view. With great clarity, he carefully explains both the machinations of Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton which created the conditions that sparked the rebellion, and the economic and cultural situation in Western Pennsylvania, where the effects of Hamilton's maneuvering were devastating, provoking a violent uprising. Step by step, he shows how the clash of the interests between classes and regions led to this most serious of popular rebellions against federal authority - how it happened, and how it was crushed.

More impressive even than Mr. Hogeland's clear, explanatory prose is his ability to animate the actors in this drama. He brings to life the people who inhabit his history, an ability more often found in fiction than in historical writings. I came away from reading his book feeling not just that I had learned about Alexander Hamilton, but that I had met him. Hugh Henry Brackenridge, the eccentric Pittsburgh lawyer who was swept up in the action of the rebellion, springs off the page full of quirky, nervous energy, and resonates as an off-beat, enigmatic hero rather than just another obscure name and historical footnote. Hogeland enlivens all the players in his history in this way, and that is the quality which sets his book apart as unique and extrordinary.

Read this book together with Thomas Slaughter's `Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution', and you should have everything you need to know about the Whiskey Rebellion short of doing a dissertation on it. If you are only going to read one book on the subject, Mr. Hogeland's is more accessible to the general reader and is livelier by far. This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in the career of Alexander Hamilton, the early republic, the early frontier, or the history of populist conflicts in America.

[Todd N · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book by Mr. Hogeland that I’ve read this year, and I really enjoyed both of them. He does a great job shining a flashlight on that relatively ignored period of history between the Constitutional Convention and The War of 1812.

The years between the Founders standing around a table looking all founder-y and the Bombs bursting in air is very interesting to me because it was a very pragmatic period in American history. It was time to stop speechifying and start getting their hands dirty governing. Imagine if the cameras kept rolling after Benjamin and Elaine got on the bus in The Graduate.

In Autumn of the Black Snake we saw how Pres. Washington and his cabinet settled the open issue of how to deal with the natives in the Northwest Territory. (Spoiler alert: After some false starts, forcefully and violently.)

In The Whiskey Rebellion we see how Pres. Washington and his cabinet settle the open issue of a populist rebellion in Western Pennsylvania against excise taxes aimed at subsistence frontier farmers. (Spoiler alert: After some false starts, forcefully and sort of violently.)

The tax was just Hamilton doing a little social engineering and nation building as Secretary of Treasury. He knew that it wasn’t cost effective to cart crops from Western Pennsylvania to the Eastern seaboard, so whiskey was a sort of liquid currency — portable, keeps a stable value, lasts a long time.

So by taxing the heck out of it, Hamilton could simultaneously wipe out an independent sort-of currency, encourage industrial-scale stills, raise money for the rich creditors on the coast, roll state debts into a national debt (didn’t quite follow this one, but okay), slap down the uppity poors out in the boonies, and establish the sovereignty of the federal government to tax production.

Hamilton was scary smart, but I’m not sure I buy that he was somehow a hip hop character like in the musical. I picture him more in a straight edge punk band, but I digress.

So the feds send tax collectors into the boonies, and they are each caught and literally tarred and feathered. As someone who writes regular checks to the government every quarter, I reread this section with relish. Even offering a room to a tax collector got your bar and tavern burned to the ground. (I am okay with this. One must fight the power after all.)

Then things get really crazy. Pittsburgh is almost burned to the ground. Washington and Hamilton march a freaking army to Western Pennsylvania, by which time the rebels have melted away further west. The elder Washington, who by this time has the stamina of JFK, had to stop at the Appalachian foothills, so Hamilton carries on with his own personal army.

The book doesn’t explicitly point this out, but Hamilton violates about a thousand amendments in the Bill of Rights along the way. He seizes crops and animals from farmers just before winter along the way, earning them the awesome name Watermelon Army. He lodges officers in civilians’ houses. People are thrown in Fort Pitt’s jail with no due process and held indefinitely. Some are marched to Philadelphia and then marched through the streets to be jeered at.

So that’s like half the Bill of Rights at least (III, IV, V, VI, VII) and the ink’s not even dry on the Constitution yet. Put that in your Don’t Tread On Me flag and smoke it.

There are a lot of great characters in the book too. After reading Fantasyland by Kurt Andersen, I really appreciated Herman Husband, who had biblical proof that the Appalachian Mountains were the Eastern wall of a New Jerusalem. He is exactly the type of Protestant-Enlightenment-entrepreneur American mashup that Mr. Andersen’s book described.

I also liked Henry Brackenridge, the lawyer who didn’t quite make it in the big city (Philadelphia), so he came out to the sticks, annoyed everyone with the cases he took during his career, and then wrote a book parodying the stupid yokels he had to put up with throughout his life. And when he was finally brought before Hamilton his palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms were heavy,
there's vomit on his waistcoat already, mom's spaghetti...

Very highly recommended. Fortunately, we no longer have to worry about arbitrary taxes designed enrich the elite, nor abuse of government power. “Why do you laugh? Change only the name and the joke's on you." —Horace

[Julie Mickens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of interesting info -- including good stuff unearthed from at least three unpublished doctoral theses -- but at times the storytelling and contextualization faltered. As is easy to do in Penn's Woods, I sometimes felt as if I were not seeing the forest for the trees. But at other moments, the material was compelling indeed.

If I were the editor, I would've:
1) reorganized some of the material; in particular, the chapter on early American money and finance is very important yet seems cut off from -- i.e., not fully integrated into -- the book's narrative.

2) incorporated some of the literature review from the (actually excellent and fascinating) Endnotes into the main text. When I read history, I enjoy knowing what's definitively attested as compared to what's sparse or speculated and, especially and explicitly, what remains remote and mysterious. I think the author tried to spare the reader from this in the main text, but both the Whiskey Rebellion itself as well as its surviving sources are all too strange and sketchy for purely stand-alone, page-turning storytelling.

3) Offered more maps and/or connected the historic place names to the modern localities in Western PA. A large share of those who would read about the Whiskey Rebellion are going to be people with a local connection, who will want not only basic geographic links but also to speculate about the course of history in these places. E.g., I find it interesting to note that the Mingo Creek Valley, once a hotbed of rebellion among subsistence farmers, is still one of the least developed vales in the area.

[Vincent T. Ciaramella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished re-reading this book for the third time. I really do like this book more and more each time I finish it. What gets me is that this event is pretty much non-existent outside of Western PA but it was such an important part of our nations early history.

For starters Western PA was talking about breaking away 90 years before SC actually did it at the beginning of the Civil War. This was the nations first challenge to the Constitution and unity. Second, the Whiskey Tax showcased Hamilton's far reaching grip on the government. I really honest to goodness think that he would have loved to be king of America. I think he's the most fascinating of our Founding Fathers but as a person I really don't think the two of us would get along. His want for conflict in the West and the eventual treatment of pretty much any man at the Forks was outlandish. Third, the rebels themselves were an interesting lot. Tom the Tinker (aka John Holcroft), David Bradford (who escaped to LA and founded the Myrtles Plantation) and even moderates like Brackenridge are people American's should know but don't.

It's an easy read and a fun one at that, especially if you live in or around Pittsburgh or Washington County. I live not too far from Mingo Creek so this story is something I see almost every day.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Upon completing this relatively slight volume, one is no longer surprised at the strain of power that runs through the revenue collectors of the federal government ending up in the likes of a Lois Lerner or John Koskinnen. And for the most part they could trace their roots all the way back to George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. The structure of the whiskey tax seemed to favor the large distillers at the expense of 'the little guy' - little surprise there other than a realization that crony capitalism got an early start. The only thing that might mitigate the performance of the early federal troops is the fact that those they were going after seemed truly vicious in their treatment of those who came to collect the tax. An interesting read/listen.

As good the second time around as the first, but nothing particularly revelatory.

[Thomas Cavano · Rating 5 out of 5]

American History under the microscope - Industrialist Hamilton levers happy farmers out of their utopia and into the factories.

Under the nose of the Father of our Country, Alexander Hamilton manages eighteenth-century social engineering to drive small-time entrepeneurs out of the spirits marketplace and drive subsistence-level farmers into the urban labor markets. The farmers, recent victors over British tyranny, revolt again. The aging Washington dusts off his uniform and attacks his people.

This is a very accessible reporting of the economics of the Whiskey Rebellion, the first test of a free nation. Clear and insightful. So that's why we went west!

[Edward]

Hogeland commented on a blog about the Whiskey Rebellion, and I copy/pasted his words here:

A correction regarding the 1790's whiskey tax. Hamilton's excise was earmarked for funding the war debt -- not paying it off. The distinction is crucial. Hamilton was indeed a father of big national government -- and big business, and their connections -- and therefore wanted to create a flush investing class, with close ties to federal government and the military establishment, whose investments in national debt would finance big national projects. Paying off the debt would not have achieved that. Funding the debt, swelling it to massive proportions by absorbing state debts in it (and including the army officer class among the creditors), and supporting investors' interest payments with a regressive tax on non-investors (the bondholders' interest income was of course untaxed) -- those measures did achieve it.

There's more, specifically on Hamilton (and the recent cult of Hamilton, in both liberal and conservative policy circles) in my new book "Inventing American History" (MIT Press; I've given the Amazon URL as my Website). More too in my book dedicated to the rebellion itself, where I discuss the brutal suppression of the Ohio headwaters area by Washington, Hamilton, and Lee, which was even worse than your piece suggests.

Best,
William Hogeland

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Update 1/2017: This book is a great antidote to the Hamilton mania still going strong. A key player in the events described, Alexander Hamilton is shown here as an unabashed elitist who intentionally engineered the conflict as a means of crushing rural populism. It became clear to me after reading this that he really deserves to be seen as one of the great villains of American history.

Great book about a frequently overlooked part of US history. It could've used a stronger conclusion to look at the meaning and ongoing significance of the Whiskey Rebellion, but a worthwhile read nonetheless. The conflict was essentially over the meaning of the American Revolution, and the main lesson I took from the story is that the US has never really been a democracy.

[Anno Nomius · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting book. Gives you a glimpse of why the whiskey tax was levied to pay for the American war of independence and what a big mistake it was to do that. In general history has not been kind to anyone trying to take away a man or a woman's drink. The prohibition in the 20s which though had a different foundation, based on morality did not last too long. The book also gives a glimpse of many interesting characters and I found Herman Husband the most intriguing. Good book. Read it.

[Phil J]

What a pleasure. I came to this book for reference because I wanted more details on Hugh Henry Brackenridge. The sections on him were well-written and suspenseful. They helped me understand the attitudes of the time and why people did what they did. I would recommend this to anyone who is interested in the Whiskey Rebellion, and I would like to come back to it at some point and read the whole thing.

[Jerome Otte · Rating 5 out of 5]

A colorful and judicious history of the Whiskey Rebellion. I had learned of the rebellion in school, and the role played by Hamilton and Washington, but I had never returned to the subject until now. The only thing I ever considered the rebellion to be was a bunch of farmers trying to keep the federal government from taxing their corn mash, but as Hogeland shows, the situation was somewhat complicated and involved a lot more issues than simple taxation. Washington led the troops that suppressed the rebellion, and then took to making whiskey himself afterward.

The crisis in western Pennsylvania does look rather predictable in retrospect, but it also seems unavoidable at the same time. Hamilton’s excise tax on whiskey, ment to fund the nation’s massive war debt (which resulted in taxes far higher than pre-Revolutionary times) was violently resisted by western Pennsylvanians, who took to torturing federal tax collectors. The whiskey rebels themselves were rather divided over what course of action to take: some advocated joining the British or the Spanish. George Washington (who comes across as baffled and easily misled by Hamilton) proved unable to tolerate their affronts to national solidarity and the authority of the federal government, and sent in federal troops to put down the uprising.

Hogeland claims that as a result of localities being unable to elect district judges (and that power being given to the federal executive),"the power that the people had been given in 1776 was taken away." However, this is only partly true, since localities still elect local judges, so this power is not “taken away,” it is only diluted.

Hogeland almost never provides direct quotes or footnotes, and the bibliography seems somewhat useless at first glance. Also, Hogeland claims that Newburyport is in New Hampshire, even though it is in Massachusetts.

[Christopher Saunders · Rating 4 out of 5]

a short, controversial chronicle of the ill-fated tax revolt in Western PA during the Washington Administration. Hogeland's main contention here is that the Pennsylvanians were perfectly justified in revolting against the tax, connecting their activism to that of the Revolution. And also, that George Washington and especially Alexander Hamilton were authoritarian monsters for suppressing it. There's some merit to this argument, but it's also possible to overstate the case. Hogeland doesn't really consider whether a government can be functional while allowing armed revolts against minor policies they don't like (and unlike the revolution against Britain, the "taxation without representation" caveat didn't apply). His case is on firmest ground showing the grotesquely disproportionate crackdown on western PA, including mass arrests without trial of people peripherally revolved in the Rebellion, which doesn't exactly speak well of the Federalist case for democracy. Whatever its shortcomings in analysis, a quick, thoughtful and relatively light read about a seminal event in early America.

[Mark Singer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a well-written and timely history of the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. President Washington led an army of over 13,000 men to suppress the revolt. At that time this was the largest single concentration of American armed forces. Hogeland does an excellent job at explaining the background to the revolt, and how it began with the raising of excise taxes in 1790 and 1791 by Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton. He is very sympathetic to the demands of the frontier rebels, and makes no secret of his distaste for the machinations of Hamilton. Is the book biased? Yes, but openly so, and this makes for a good read.

[Laurel Starkey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Whiskey Rebellion explores in detail a question still relevant today: how should power be distributed in the United States? In the earliest days of the US it was far from clear how the country would be ruled. This book examines how early power struggles amongst the different population groups were used by the Federalists -- principally Alexander Hamilton -- to solidify and concentrate the power of the Federal government.

With quick-moving prose and well researched detail, this is a book for both the casual reader of history and the political student alike.

[Debra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Money and politics....Does it ever change?

Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton maneuvered to get an excise tax put on whiskey. In so doing the east and the west part of the new US's interests were pitted against each other. As were the interests of the investor class against the producing class.

Hogeland makes the issues clear, and the outcome inevitable.

Simon Vance, one of my favorite narrators, did the audiobook narration.

[Narr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hamilton was not a nice man, Washington was not always in the lead, and quoting our Revolutionary Founders in protest is nothing new. Of interest to some might be the use of the military to enforce federal laws, the corruption and greed of early American financiers, and the use of local terrorism to protect Constitutional rights.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

good book, also see "The Whiskey Rebellion: Frontier Epilogue to the American Revolution" by Thomas P. Slaughter

[Lis Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a detailed look at an often-overlooked episode in the early history of the American republic, the Whiskey Rebellion.

We now take for granted the success of the new United States of America after the American War for Independence, but it was far from a foregone conclusion. Under the initial Articles of Confederation, adopted in 1781 when formal ratification by all thirteen original states was completed. The Articles contained a fatal flaw: the Congress had no power to tax and could only request funding from the states. This meant, effectively, that it could make all the decisions it wanted, but it had no power to implement them. The Congress could not manage or prevent conflicts between states, could not take effective action without unanimous support of the states, and was generally unable to provide any of the benefits of a national government. Because of this, the early USA was in danger of coming apart, with some states even making overtures to Britain.

The Constitutional Convention was convened to revise the Articles to correct these problems. In fact, the delegates, or important leaders among them, including James Madison and George Washington, recognized that the Articles were essentially unfixable. Creating a functional government required abandoning them and starting from scratch. The result was the US Constitution as we now know it (minus all the amendments, of course), which after ratification took effect in 1789, with George Washington elected as the first President essentially unopposed. (In fact, the Constitution would not have been ratified if Washington, truly the most respected and trusted man in the country, had not agreed to serve in that capacity.)

But that makes everything sound too simple, clean, and easy. In fact there was a significant body of political opposition to a strong central government. The Federalist Papers were written to address that opposition and get the Constitution ratified, but in the longer run, the fundamental disagreement about how the United States of America should be governed, and even how it should be understood, remained.

One of the critical powers gained under the Constitution was the power of direct taxation, so that the federal government was no longer dependent on the voluntary financial contributions of the states. Initially, that power was exercised only in tariffs on imported goods. This wasn't sufficient to deal with the debt incurred, both nationally and by the individual states, during the Revolution, however, and in 1791, at the urging of Alexander Hamilton, Congress passed an excise tax on domestically distilled whiskey.

This was far more politically explosive than we would expect today. It became a major expression of the conflict between the Federalists (Hamilton and his political allies) and the Anti-Federalists, America's first opposition political party, of which Thomas Jefferson emerged as a major leader.

It also became a major expression of the conflict between the relatively urban, developed, and prosperous coastal populations, and the rural, much less prosperous western fringes of the new country. Particularly in western Pennsylvania, where whiskey production was a source of critical extra income, the excise tax on whiskey was deeply unpopular, and provoked violent resistance. This in turn provoked, eventually, military action, led by President George Washington, to suppress the rebellion and enforce the tax.

This extremely well-written and well-researched book is, essentially, the Anti-Federalist viewpoint on that conflict. Hogeland has a very negative view of Alexander Hamilton, and does not concede or even mention the critical ways in which the assumption of the states' debt and the commitment to paying the entire debt at face value benefited the fledgling United States and continues to do so.

That said, precisely because of that viewpoint, Hogeland gives us a detailed, thoroughly researched, look at a part of early America that's often overlooked, the lives of the ordinary people outside the major population centers of the new country. It's sometimes frustrating, but a useful and interesting contribution.

Recommended.

I borrowed this book from the library.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Try this instead of Hillbilly Elegy for a deeper historical perspective on rural vs coast distrust.

Long buried on my bookshelf, I didn't expect to fully read this one. But I'm glad and I did and recommend others do, too. It's not that I didn't know the story of the Whiskey Rebellion, it's that as an American history nerd I knew too much of the basic story as it is often referenced in biographies and podcasts about the early days of the Republic. But those are usually told solely from the perspective of Washington, Hamilton, et al. Hogeland's book is more comprehensive taking a deeper look at the causes and events along the frontier of 1791 America, today's Appalachia region, and also considering it from the perspective of the local population instead of just the "Founders" in the East. This gives a valuable perspective on learning to balance the frictions between different parts of the population with varying and competing priorities within a single democracy.

The past year has seen many attempts to explain the us-vs-them attitudes that supposedly influenced the 2016 election and claiming that we are more polarized than we have ever been (if you ignore the Civil War and much of American history). There are books and news reports looking at the culture of rural America, the Midwest, Appalachia, etc trying to understand the distrust of Washington or "big city" ideas. I always argue that you should take a long historical perspective because anything discovered in society probably isn't new. Reading about the reasons people in western Pennsylvania and Virginia resented and then resisted the tax on distilling whiskey that was put into law by Alexander Hamilton and East Coast financiers, you see that there are indeed deep roots, and valid reasons, to believe that interests are not aligned between New Yorker and farmer. Decisions have trade offs, and decisions were made by Easterners at the serious expense of the Westerners without their consideration. Is this directly connected to today's attitudes and actions? I'm not saying that. The point is that regional perspectives can be different and people on both sides did not understand or appreciate the other, so the system is not working. And we know that continues to happen.

But maybe the most fun about this book is that current golden Founding Father Alexander Hamilton is practically a villain in this story. Or at least it shows his flaws in a greater light, taking him down a notch since his Broadway inflation ;)

[Nick Guzan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This surprisingly engaging read illustrates the Whiskey Rebellion as a monumental and defining moment in American history.

William Hogeland's book shines a light on the importance of the then-frontier region of western Pennsylvania in the early years of the United States, showcasing Pittsburgh's critical role as lynchpin in the early success and survival of the nation. Once Hogeland dispenses with the necessary but at times dry exposition, the book reads like compelling fiction laced with dark humor and colorful characters of the era like the pragmatic Hugh Brackenridge, the eccentric Herman Husband, the fearless General John Neville, and the brief adventure of the martyred amateur "spy" Robert Wilson.

Hogeland also isn't afraid to present a less celebrated side of colonial legends like George Washington and Alexander Hamilton as ruthlessly shrewd and even manipulative, a welcome touch of open-minded revisionism. Writing from more than 200 years later, Hogeland is careful not to point any accusatory fingers without concrete facts, but he does include the interesting perspective of then congressman William Findlay who "suspected Hamilton of inciting this rebellion solely for the purpose of quelling it with brutal force."

One curious note: essentially everyone from President George Washington to the wild rebel David Hamilton are typically referred to by last name only, though Hugh Henry Brackenridge is almost exclusively addressed as "Mr. Brackenridge." Despite that curious affectation, Hogeland helpfully mines through the abundance of unrelated Bradfords, Hamiltons, and others who played their part in this real-life drama of the 1790s to ensure that there is no unnecessary confusion for the reader. (A confusion that, in real-life, eventually led to the satisfying exoneration of the conflicted Mr. Brackenridge.)

[Bob · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is an interesting story of an event, now largely forgotten, from shortly after ratification of the Constitution. Rebels living out west (‘West’ meaning near the small city of Pittsburgh at this time) took up arms to protest the nation’s first direct internal tax. This being an excise tax on whiskey.

George Washington gathered an army of over 10,000 men and, with Secretary of the Treasury/Acting Secretary of War Alexander Hamilton, marched to subdue the rebellion. The rebel movement collapsed with no shots fired at the troops (or back at themselves). Arrests were made and trials were held.

William Hogeland may have written a factually accurate account: I don’t know. But he very clearly has a bias towards the rebels and against Alexander Hamilton. In this case, it may be justified. But I came away feeling like it was a historical recollection written by a fervent anti-federalist. A bit more balance would have been nice.

[Joe Koennecke · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a neat look at an often overlooked event in early history. I remember the 50 word section in my high school yearbook and a couple of the key vocabulary words associated with this event. The actual event was far more important in our early history than most people recognize. The book provides some less than popular opinions of founding fathers, highlights the financial strategy which set ground work for our entire history, and demonstrates early state/federal issues and opinions. Great read for anyone interested in early America. I listened to this immediately following American Insurgents, American Patriots and the two books flowed well with respect to timeline and national issues/events.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The infant United States was far from a cohesive national entity, as Hogeland amply demonstrates in his vivid, page-turning history of this little-known episode. His depiction of Alexander Hamilton's role in suppressing the Whiskey Rebellion confirmed my view that it was a good thing that Hamilton, with his well-known disdain for the people's democratic impulses, was not eligible to run for the presidency.

The Whiskey Rebellion was a joy to read: well-organized, occasionally humorous, and gripping. Hogeland has done a superb job of bringing to life the culture, personalities, conflicts, and tensions of 1790s western Pennsylvania.

[Kaitron · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of course I wish there was more about Western PA, but overall, I learned quite a bit, These isn't a lot written on this subject, though I there were times that some of the sentences describing the conditions surrounding the Whisky Rebellion could have been take verbatim from current news broadcasts.

[Jocelyn Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Engaging narrative about a little-known slice of American history.

[Jason Baldinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid and readable retelling of the events surrounding The Whiskey Rebellion, which equates to the closet America ever came to French Revolution.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating dive into the Whiskey Rebellion of 1791-1794, in which the national US federal government operating under the new Constitution, was challenged by small distillers in western Pennsylvania of a new tax that especially hurt them: the whiskey tax. This episode illustrates the tensions of the new nation between frontier settlers and the eastern moneyed interests, as well as the continuing democratic consequences of the American Revolution that the Constitutional Republic sought to reign in. Taking inspiration from the French Revolution, radicals sought to bend the east towards its will or even make new states/nations, while the moderates sought to reign in federal authority and give Jeffersonian opposition a chance to challenge the Hamiltonian Federal government. Eventually, when the radicals lead a revolt against the tax collectors and get into several skirmishes and near open civil war in the "forks" of the Western Pennsylvania, President Washington (himself a western land speculator) leads an army to end the near insurrection. Hamilton sought to tame the impulses of the rabble in his quest to make the United States into a commercial empire with laboring masses at the bottom, and to reign in those dangerous democratic societies that Washington himself saw potentially a danger to an orderly Republic.

Ultimately, after that army largely disperses the rebellion and makes a few arrests, not much comes of it, because taxes were still slow in being collected and resisted passively, and the whiskey tax abolished after the Jeffersonian Democratic-Republicans came to power after 1800. Much of the cases against the leaders were dismissed since Hamilton could not find all that much evidence and he seemed to have overplayed his hand. What it did demonstrate was the federal government would act if threatened, and that those outright rebellious democratic societies would be largely crushed, and channeled into federal and state power instead.

The background and research into this episode by Hogeland is superb, well worth the read. Particularly of note is frontier rebellions, that must have been very difficult to research, given the fast paced events and poor documentation.

[Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on the Whiskey Rebellion. Generally unknown grassroots rebellion that caused the mustering of the largest army in America till that point. William Hogeland clearly explains the radical French Revolutionary aspect of the rebels and how it fit into the ongoing French Revolution and "Democratic associations." David Bradford calling himself the Robespierre of the West and Herman Husband's not French Revolution, but also his Communist leanings, with redistribution of wealth and absolute equality. One could call it a grassroots manifestation of a US Jacobite flare up. Very interesting.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good!