Description: "What Mr. McDonald's book does, with exceptional skill and learning, is to re-examine Hamilton's policies as secretary of the treasury. To this task the author brings a masterful knowledge of the politics of the period. . . . He brilliantly demonstrates how William Blackstone, David Hume and Jacques Necker affected Hamilton's thought. Finally, Mr. McDonald . . . gives the clearest exposition that I have ever seen of just what Hamilton's financial policies were and how they worked." --David Herbert Donald, New York Times Book Review