Who We Are: America’s Fight for Universal Progress, from Franklin to Kennedy: Volume I – 1750s to 1850s

One of the most original history books in a generation. Anton Chaitkin’s new book provides a completely new understanding of the industrial revolution and the strategic context for America’s founding. Chaitkin deeply documents the policy fight – industrial progress versus empire-dictated backwardness, exposing the shallow sophistries of Adam Smith, Karl Marx, and revisionist ideologues on the origin of modern times. “Who We Are” reveals: Benjamin Franklin, based in England, inspired and coordinated a small circle of progressive innovators who built Britain’s first canals, invented the steam engine, and brought on the Industrial Revolution. Franklin and Alexander Hamilton’s national banking, protectionist and manufacturing ideas countered the imperial doctrines of “free trade” and agrarianism promoted by Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, formerly an anti-slavery revolutionary, had become the spokesman for Southern interests and the associated imperial trade system. A team of 6 statesmen and military leaders in the early 19th century revived the Revolutionary legacy and organized America’s industrial transformation, building the canals, the first railroads, the coal and iron industries.