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In The Hamilton Scheme William Hogeland tells a sprawling story that begins during the American Revolution and continues through the Andrew Jackson administration (and beyond). His concentration is on the political and economic machinations that built the early financial system of the new nation � how and why it was done, who benefited, who was hurt, who opposed the process, and the lasting ramifications. The initial protagonist of this story is Alexander Hamilton, whose dream of creating in the new nation a financial empire on the model of Great Britain, combined with his machiavellian genius in implementing his ideas, created the foundation that all others would either attempt to build on or rip apart.

While Hamilton begins as the principal focus, there’s a fascinating supporting cast to this history of a nascent financial empire. Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution was Hamilton’s mentor in finance, and a chief ally in his political machinations. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison usually (but not always) provided the spirited opposition, both theoretical and political, to Hamilton’s vision. Albert Gallatin takes over the main focus at some point of the story, as a financial genius who tried to deconstruct the financial scheme Hamilton created. Most interesting are the characters who became the biggest losers of this history � those men the founders derisively called “the Democracy,� who supported the idea of truly radical democracy (which they believed represented the spirit of the American Revolution) where laborers and common folk would receive equal treatment to the moneyed class enriched by Hamilton’s plan. These include the propagandist of the Revolution, Thomas Paine, and a back country radical prophet of Democracy, Herbert Husband.

This history spans the Revolution, Shays Rebellion, the Constitutional Convention, the Whiskey Rebellion, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Louisiana Purchase, the War of 1812, and more, all seen through the lens of how they functioned in advancing or complicating the Hamilton’s financial schemes as well as those who opposed them. It covers the administrations of Washington through Jackson. The Epilogue traces the lingering effects and political myth-making up to our present time.

Hogeland’s telling of the story is riveting, but it does sprawl out of control, losing focus in the book’s last third, sometimes almost as far as losing the point. He also has a noticeable point of view; while acknowledging the impracticality of the ideas of Husband, Paine, and the other radical democrats who were crushed by the money men who built a financial empire for their own class, it seems obvious that his sympathies are more clearly aligned with them than with the financial founders who triumphed.