Elaine G. Breslaw. Dr. Alexander Hamilton and Provincial
America: Expanding the Orbit of Scottish Culture. Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 2008. xv + 348 pp. $55.00
(cloth), ISBN 978-0-8071-3278-4. Reviewed by John Dixon
(California State University, Channel Islands) Published on
H-Atlantic (July, 2008) The intellectual and cultural influence
of Dr. Alexander Hamilton (1712-56) is widely cited, but few
historians have a detailed understanding of this complex
Scottish-American (who should not be confused with the Founding
Father of the same name). An Edinburgh physician who immigrated
to Maryland in 1738, Hamilton is primarily known for his 1744
travel diary, which provides a rich source of information about
America's mid-eighteenth-century society, politics, and economy.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, and inspired by the work of
Carl Bridenbaugh and J. A. Leo Lemay, a number of academics drew
attention to other aspects of Hamilton's life and work. In
particular, they touted Hamilton's massi