Teri Kanefield is the author of a new book for older kids, Alexander Hamilton: The Making of America. Her other books include The Girl from the Tar Paper School and Rivka's Way, and her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including Education Week, Scope Magazine, and The Iowa Review. She lives in California.
Q: What do you think of Hamilton’s emergence as a pop
culture phenomenon?
A: It’s fabulous! To quote former President Obama, the
Broadway musical Hamilton is “a civics lesson our kids can't get enough of.”
Q: What are some of the ideas people tend to have, right or
wrong, about Alexander Hamilton?
A: The most common misconception of Hamilton was that he was
a monarchist who wanted to return to a British-style aristocracy.
The misconception came about because the Jeffersonians took control
of the government and basically held it until the Civil War, so their views
were the dominant views.
They believed northerners, bankers, and industrialists were
nothing more than British-style aristocrats, while planters and farmers
embodied the true spirit of America. They disliked Hamilton’s policies, and
launched anti-Hamilton propaganda.
Many of their criticisms of Hamilton have come down to us as
truth.
Q: Did you learn anything about Hamilton in the course of
your research that especially surprised you?
A: What I learned is that Thomas Jefferson and Alexander
Hamilton started the argument, or dialogue, that we are still having today. For
example, Jefferson and Hamilton argued about states’ rights versus a strong
federal government, whether there should be federal taxes, the meaning of
liberty, and more—all things we are still arguing about.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: The biography of Andrew Jackson! The biographies of
Hamilton and Jackson, taken together, show the development of the nation from
the founding fathers until the mid 1830s.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: When I’ve been asked what I hope my readers take away
from the book, I say it’s the importance of studying history. We can’t
understand the election of 2016 unless we understand past elections,
particularly the elections of 1796, 1800, and 1828.
I’ve also been asked how I’ve been able to cover
mercantilism, theories of constitutional interpretation, and economic
theories--in a book for kids? Really?
I was one of those high school students who basically slept
through civics classes. I was bored.
I didn’t realize this stuff was interesting until I got to
law school. It occurred to me that if we presented the material to young
readers the way it is presented in law school—with all of its depth—young
readers might engage more with history.
Also, it seems to me you can’t really understand Alexander
Hamilton and his contributions without touching on these concepts. Leaving them
out, it seems to me, underestimates young readers, who are just as capable as
adults of understanding this stuff.
Thank you for your interest in Alexander Hamilton: The
Making of America!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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