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Radio War Nerd EP #242 — How War Shaped Alexander Hamilton's Economic Nationalism, with Christian Parenti (Patreon)

Published:
2020-08-20 14:32:31
Imported:
2026-06
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Guest: Christian Parenti, author, journalist & assoc. professor of economics, John Jay College

Recorded: August 17, 2020

In a li'l change-up here from RWN's general rants against anti-populists, we talk to Christian Parenti about his new book "Radical Hamilton" about how war creates its own political-economy realities, and how those war realities shaped Hamilton's little-studied ideas on centralized state development that, despite all the official cant, have defined America's system of government & economy.

Christian Parenti previously appeared on RWN EP #187. Buy his book "Radical Hamilton: Economic Lessons from a Misunderstood Founder" published by Verso Press.

Total time: 2:05:58

Direct link to this episode's mp3 here 

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online Leftist Archive Project (LARP)

I've seen the musical, it certainly does not cover Hamilton's male lover, that would have been pretty cool though. Anyway, another freaking excellent interview with Christian Parenti. Just like the Tropic of Chaos interview, I'll be giving this one multiple listens for sure. This is a huge debate on the left - a lot of our problems come from not wanting to deal with the state at all as a terrain of political action and conflict, so we retreat to some idealized notions of localism and horizontalism. Whereas if we'd actually want to make our society more localist and horizontalist - promoting locally run cooperatives for all our utilities, public banking so that small businesses have better access to credit, etc - we'd have to, ya know, actually seize state power. I also like how this one follows the previous interview - the previous interview stressed the need for state intervention to redirect investment in a way that tackles the climate crisis, and this one outlines the role of the state in the development of the American economy. A planned, green economy wouldn't violate our "American-ness" at all, in just the same way there's been a strong libertarian streak there's also been a strong statist one throughout our history.

Ellen Harold

Do people confuse hierarchies of caste and class with chain of command? You can’t have 2 pilots on a plane trying to fly it in different directions. But you have a co-pilot who is an equal and capable of taking over if pilot is disabled. On the other hand, the passengers expect the plane to take them where they want to go.

ymichaux

This interview at times steered so closely to Ha-Joon Chang's "kicking away the ladder" (and later "bad samaritans") that I was a little surprised he didn't get a mention. Great episode tho

Ellen Harold

Lafayette same age as Hamilton, commissioned a major general at age 19!

HT Dong

I think I remember Michael Hudson (of Super-Imperialism, not other internet guys named that) had a book and some pieces about some of this stuff on industrial policy and the neoliberal ideological push basically erasing the history of the "American school" of development economics based on combining Hamilton's thinking on these subjects with contemporary German thinking. the origins are an interesting story. combining it with Hogeland's take on Hamilton as repressing resistance to his tax policies with a mix of gray propaganda and military force, we might anachronistically call Hamilton the first tankie

Maggie+Al

I mean it might be better to call the leadership of sucessful Third World Communists movements Hamiltonians in Marxist costume.

Maggie+Al

I don't buy Hamilton = Lenin, Jefferson = Trostky. It leans to heavily on the positions that Trotsky takes when he's out of power. Trotsky as the Head of the Red Army who Brings in Tsarist officers in the to revolutionary fold, Trotsky who, at the Ninth Party Congress, called for Trade Unions to be turned into a tool for the militarization of the working class at the. The Trotsky who put down the risings at Tambrov and Kronstadt. The Trostky who had the chance to wield power There seems to be a confluence of interests here, both trotsky’s supporters and detractors in socialist Movement to minimize that Trotsky the one who actually wielded power, I think he might have had more in common with Hamilton than Jefferson.

online Leftist Archive Project (LARP)

Jefferson = Alexandra Kollontai? Maybe he's more like one of the left-libertarian-ish council communists who didn't like centralized Bolshevik rule.

Animals in Motion

Love Parenti, and great ep. But I think he leans a bit too much on the supposed fact that this aspect of Hamilton is "unknown". I remember being taught in econ history here in Stockholm by a farily orthodox older fella who I don't think had updated his views since the 70's (meaning I don't think he would have read Christian on this), and he also framed Hamilton as an early "statist developmentalist". He also had us read "The Report on Manufactures" and some secondary texts setting Hamilton up in that way.

Mark Ames

He references Ha-Joon Chang in the intro to the book.

Steff

Guys this was a fantastic interview definitely worth unlocking for non patrons.

Paul M

I enjoyed this episode. It looks like my local library has this book on order, so I will be the first to read it once it arrives. Do you have a link to the War Nerd's 1812 writings, particularly on Rhode Island?

bo li

did he say east Asians read Hamilton's means proper? is he referring to Japan? coz I really, really, feel China today is Hamilton's wet dream come true...

Andrew

Big deal

Andrew

Idk if this is the guy/one of the guys Parenti was talking about, but Massey, author of ‘John Laurens and the American Revolution’ says in the 2000 edition of the book that the Lamilton affair was homosocial, but in the 2015 edition he says “whether or not their relationship was homosexual or homosocial is a matter of debate that can not be definitively resolved”. Lamilton was me not him...Massey just uses the hyphenated Laurens-Hamilton, which is of course mad boring and dumb. This is on the Wikipedia page for John Laurens—my brain’s current firmware does not support academic histories of the American Revolution. But I clicked the links and this stuff’s in this guy’s book. Idk interesting

Jim Vail

Trying to wrap myself around this one - who in the hell on the left would argue against the state in terms of economics? Are libertarians considered on the left because they argue against military wars & corporate subsidies. Or is he referring to Nation economists who have more in common with their sponsors than the rest of us.

Jelle Haandrikman

A great episode. I just saw "citizen K" which highlights the plunder of Russia in the 90s. It also foocusses on giving out of vouchers to citizens. The olicharchs buy them up big time for a really low price and exchange them to buy government assets. It rhymes with the with the IOU's in the 1780s crisis. It's really interesting to hear that one of the founding fathers of the US promotes such a centralized state in order to survive. When I play Tropico 5 and the world powers are houdnig you after independence, I still get the idea that the game is too easy compared to real life. This episode does prove that once again.