The Environmental Legacy of Alexander Hamilton: Manufacturing Power from Delusion

Abstract

Alexander Hamilton’s goal was to build America into a respected and feared world power. To accomplish this mission, it was necessary to move the country away from its agrarian foundations and toward an urban, industrial, manufacturing economy. Hamilton was unambiguous regarding the environmental legacy of this debt-ridden society of “consumers.” With chilling clarity, he stated, “the bowels and the surface of the earth are ransacked” for materials to feed the American delusion that our vanity and fear can be mollified by a rat race of borrowing, labor, and consumption. Hamilton’s legacy lives today in the shopping malls and discount centers of a nation that comprises 4 % of the world’s population but devours 25 % of the world’s resources.