The Classics Department at Hamilton College is hosting a conference, "Alexander Hamilton and the Classics," on Wednesday, April 11, from 2:30-5:30 p.m. in the Kennedy Auditorium of the Science Center (G027). The event is free and the public is welcome to attend.
Alexander Hamilton, who was born out of wedlock on the Caribbean island of Nevis, has been the most neglected of those credited with the founding of the United States, even though he was arguably the most influential of them.
The conference panelists will examine the role the classics, Cicero and Plutarch in particular, played in the intellectual life of the remarkable man who, using the name Publius, wrote at least 51 of the 85 Federalist essays and who, after being appointed as the first Secretary of the Treasury, created the foundations of the U.S. financial system, making it possible for the United States to become the economic colossus it is today.
Frank Anechiarico, Maynard-Knox Professor of Government and Law, Hamilton College
Anechiarico is an expert on constitutional law and public administration. At Hamilton College he has collaborated with Carl Rubino in teaching a seminar on the influence of the classics in American political life, focusing in particular on Cicero, Jefferson, and Hamilton.
Alexander Hamilton, The Classics as a Means of Social Mobility, and the Importance of Translations
Carl J. Richard, Professor of History, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Carl Richard is the author of The Battle for the American Mind: A Brief History of a Nation's Thought (2004) and Twelve Greeks and Romans Who Changed the World (2003).
The Sound of the Trumpet: Alexander Hamilton, Cicero, and the Challenge of the Classics
Carl A. Rubino, the Edward North Professor of Classics, Hamilton College
Rubino has published extensively on classics, comparative literature, philosophy, and issues in science and the humanities--in particular on irreversibility, the problem of time, and the impact of the theory of evolution upon ethics.
Responses
Caroline Winterer, Assistant Professor of History, Stanford University
Robert W. Martin, Associate Professor of Government, Hamilton College
Winterer's research interests include American intellectual and cultural history in the 18th and 19th centuries and the reception of classical antiquity.
Martin is the author of The Free and Open Press: The Founding of American Democratic Press Liberty ( 2001) and co-editor, with Douglas Ambrose, of The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America's Most Elusive Founding Father, (2006).
For more information, call or write Carl A. Rubino (859-4283, crubino@hamilton.edu). The Department of Classics wishes to acknowledge the Dean of Faculty for help with this event.
