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

The Whiskey Rebellion, which came to a head in 1794 on the frontier of Western Pennsylvania, provides a great microcosm for viewing the early American republic. It encapsulates the stories of the nation's transformation into a centralized, commercial power, along with the expansion of the nation westward, which often presented challenges to that centralized power. 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 new 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 to create a centralized commercial power were so devastating as to cause such 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 actually knew 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 tragic hero rather than just another obscure name and historical footnote, which is how many histories have treated him. 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.