Gordon Wood on Alexander Hamilton

See Bonus Quotation of the Day… from Cafe Hayek.

"… is from pages 102-103 of Gordon Wood’s excellent 2009 volume, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815:

[Alexander] Hamilton was so wedded to a hierarchical view of society that he could only imagine industrial investment and development coming from the top down. Thus he was incapable of foreseeing that the actual source of America’s manufacturing would come from below, from the ambitions, productivity, and investments of thousands upon thousands of middling artisans and craftsmen who eventually became America’s businessmen. Hamilton’s historical reputation as the prophet of America’s industrial greatness therefore seems somewhat exaggerated. He certainly wanted a powerful and glorious nation, but he was no more capable of accurately foretelling the future than the other American leaders."