One of America's foremost historians brilliantly brings to life the fierce struggle - both public and, ultimately, bitterly personal - between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton - two rivals whose opposing visions of what the United States should be continue to shape our country to this day.

In this nonfiction text, Hamilton Vs. Jefferson, readers will study the differences between two very important but distinct founding fathers: Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Through the use of dynamic primary sources like maps and letters, middle school students will be engaged as they read about history and build their literacy skills. Supporting current social studies standards, this full-color text includes intriguing images, interesting sidebars, a glossary, and other important text features to support learning and strengthen key comprehension skills. Challenging activities require students to use text evidence to connect back to what they've read.

Does every increase in the power of government entail a loss of liberty for the people? James H. Read examines how four key Founders--James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, James Wilson, and Thomas Jefferson--wrestled with this question during the first two decades of the American Republic. Power versus Liberty reconstructs a four-way conversation--sometimes respectful, sometimes shrill--that touched on the most important issues facing the new nation: the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, federal authority versus states' rights, freedom of the press, the controversial Bank of the United States, the relation between nationalism and democracy, and the elusive meaning of "the consent of the governed." Each of the men whose thought Read considers differed on these key questions. Jefferson believed that every increase in the power of government came at the expense of liberty: energetic governments, he insisted, are always oppressive. Madison believed that this view was too simple, that liberty can be threatened either by too much or too little governmental power. Hamilton and Wilson likewise rejected the Jeffersonian view of power and liberty but disagreed with Madison and with each other. The question of how to reconcile energetic government with the liberty of citizens is as timely today as it was in the first decades of the Republic. It pervades our political discourse and colors our readings of events from the confrontation at Waco to the Oklahoma City bombing to Congressional debate over how to spend the government surplus. While the rhetoric of both major political parties seems to posit a direct relationship between the size of our government and the scope of our political freedoms, the debates of Madison, Hamilton, Wilson, and Jefferson confound such simple dichotomies. As Read concludes, the relation between power and liberty is inherently complex.

In this nonfiction text, Hamilton Vs. Jefferson, readers will study the differences between two very important but distinct founding fathers: Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Through the use of dynamic primary sources like maps and letters, middle school students will be engaged as they read about history and build their literacy skills. Supporting current social studies standards, this full-color text includes intriguing images, interesting sidebars, a glossary, and other important text features to support learning and strengthen key comprehension skills. Challenging activities require students to use text evidence to connect back to what they've read.

Profiles the personal qualities, political achievements, and life ambitions of Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson.

Like its current citizens, the United States was born in debt-a debt so deep that it threatened to destroy the young nation. Thomas Jefferson considered the national debt a monstrous fraud on posterity, while Alexander Hamilton believed debt would help America prosper. Both, as it turns out, were right. One Nation Under Debt explores the untold history of America's first national debt, which arose from the immense sums needed to conduct the American Revolution. Noted economic historian Robert Wright, Ph.D. tells in riveting narrative how a subjugated but enlightened people cast off a great tyrant-“but their liberty, won with promises as well as with the blood of patriots, came at a high price.” He brings to life the key events that shaped the U.S. financial system and explains how the actions of our forefathers laid the groundwork for the debt we still carry today. As an economically tenuous nation by Revolution's end, America's people struggled to get on their feet. Wright outlines how the formation of a new government originally reduced the nation's debt-but, as debt was critical to this government's survival, it resurfaced, to be beaten back once more. Wright then reveals how political leaders began accumulating massive new debts to ensure their popularity, setting the financial stage for decades to come. Wright traces critical evolutionary developments-from Alexander Hamilton's creation of the nation's first modern capital market, to the use of national bonds to further financial goals, to the drafting of state constitutions that created non-predatory governments. He shows how, by the end of Andrew Jackson's administration, America's financial system was contributing to national growth while at the same time new national and state debts were amassing, sealing the fate for future generations.

In this nonfiction text, Hamilton Vs. Jefferson, readers will study the differences between two very important but distinct founding fathers: Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Through the use of dynamic primary sources like maps and letters, middle school students will be engaged as they read about history and build their literacy skills. Supporting current social studies standards, this full-color text includes intriguing images, interesting sidebars, a glossary, and other important text features to support learning and strengthen key comprehension skills. Challenging activities require students to use text evidence to connect back to what they've read.