In John Ferling’s most recent publication, Jefferson and Hamilton: The Rivalry That Forged a Nation, he proves once more why he is a leading historian in the American Revolutionary Period. The retired history professor from The University of West Georgia has gone through extensive research, proven by 50-pages of endnotes documented at the end of the book, to compose an easy-to-read non-fiction about the impact Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton during the early days of our country. Ferling has organized his book to take the reader through the lives of these two powerhouses from early childhood to death. Beginning with a 3-page chronology, he gives a timeline the reader can refer to throughout the book. He carries this chronological approach throughout the book in four sections, describing their “unhappy youths” to their trials in shaping the newly born America and “tragic ends”. …show more content…
Neither Jefferson nor Hamilton encountered warm loving youths. Jefferson was sent off to school at the age of nine leaving behind his family and soon after being stripped away from his father just prior to his death. Hamilton grew up with a scandalous mother and a father who abandoned them at the age of eleven. Learning about their background gives the reader a basis and easy understanding as to why and how each man developed, emotionally and socially, the way they did. Ferling’s second section focuses on the causes that brought each man to become a rebel. For Hamilton, it was his determination and ambition to carry out his destiny in the New Promised Land. For Jefferson, the financial instability of Virginia after the Seven Years War and their lack of economic development, led him to the cause. This difference was the basis behind their immense opposition to each