Hamilton was a brilliant writer, tireless worker, and visionary statesman — but he had a fatal flaw: he was constitutionally incapable of not alienating people. Yale historian Joanne Freeman said he was too extreme, too impulsive, too arrogant, and too suspicious of democracy to thrive in the politics of the 1790s.
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At 12:35 · chapter starts 9:40
Dominic maps the arc of Hamilton's early life with verve: born probably in 1755 on the sugar island of Nevis as the illegitimate son of a Scottish father and a Huguenot mother, abandoned in childhood, and orphaned in his early teens, Hamilton was nonetheless spotted as exceptional by the locals of Nevis, who sent him to New York for an education. Once there, in the heated mid-1770s, the bookish young man — a devotee of Plutarch and, more revealingly, Machiavelli — was quickly swept up in the revolutionary cause. He joined the Continental Army, caught Washington's eye as a brilliant writer and organiser, and became Washington's chief staff aide, though he chafed under the role, burning for glory of his own. Tom and Dominic agree Hamilton had a complicated relationship with Washington — Oedipal even — and that his sharpness of tongue and arrogance would dog him throughout his career. Yale historian Joanne Freeman is quoted: Hamilton was 'too extreme, too impulsive, too unwilling to suffer fools' to really thrive in democratic politics. [1] — Dominic Sandbrook "Hamilton was probably born in 1755 on the sugar island of Nevis — an illegitimate child abandoned by his father and orphaned in his early t…" 09:20
Alexander Hamilton was probably born in 1755 on the sugar island of Nevis, an illegitimate child who was orphaned in his early teens before being sent to North America for his education.
Hamilton wrote the majority of the essays in the Federalist Papers, which explained the thinking behind the US Constitution and are still required reading in American schools.
Factories that replaced coal engines with electric ones in the early 1900s got only 6% efficiency gains. Those that redesigned their entire factory around electricity got a 3x productivity improvement. Swapping AI tools into your existing structure will give you 6%. Rebuilding around AI will give you 10x.
Lebanese terrorists backed by Iran were holding American hostages throughout the Reagan presidency. Reagan had loudly campaigned against negotiating with terrorists — putting him in an impossible position that his team quietly decided to ignore.
During the Iran-Iraq War, the US openly supplied Iraq with weapons, training, and intelligence. At the same time, Oliver North was secretly funneling missiles to Iran. The US was playing both sides of a shooting war.
Oliver North traveled to Iran under the alias 'William P. Goode' with a fake passport. CIA Director William Casey allegedly gave him cyanide pills so he could kill himself rather than be tortured if captured. He returned safely and the deal moved forward.
The Pentagon sold missiles to the CIA for $3,700 each. The CIA sold them to Richard Secord at cost. Secord sold them to Iranian middleman Ghorbanifar for $10,000 each. Ghorbanifar charged Iran even more. The profit — including $3 million in interest in one Swiss account — was diverted directly to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.
America secretly transferred 2,000 missiles and missile parts to Iran in 8 shipments over more than a year. Only 3 of 7 hostages were released. Three more were taken. The net result was zero freed hostages and a full-blown constitutional scandal.
On October 5, 1986, a CIA Contra supply plane flew a weapons drop at 2,500 feet in broad daylight. A Sandinista soldier shot it down. The only survivor, Eugene Hasenfuss, had borrowed a parachute from his skydiving brother. He was captured, paraded in front of cameras, and told the Sandinistas everything he knew.
The CIA supply operation used a front company called Southern Air Transport, widely known to be a CIA cover. Crew members of the downed plane carried their Southern Air Transport employee IDs in their wallets. One also had a business card directly linking him to Oliver North's office in Washington.
When the scandal broke, Oliver North and his secretary Fawn Hall conducted what became known as a 'shredding party,' destroying a day's worth of documents. The full truth of Iran-Contra may never be known because of what was fed through that shredder.
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