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Article: The Noblest Minds: Fame, Honor, and the American Founding.(Review)
- Article from:
- American Political Science Review
- Article date:
- March 1, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 Cambridge University Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Noblest Minds: Fame, Honor, and the American Founding. Edited by Peter McNamara. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1999. 256p. $60.00 cloth, $22.95 paper.
In Federalist 72, Hamilton characterized "the love of fame" as "the ruling passion of the noblest minds." Some 35 years ago, the noted historian Douglass Adair, in an effort to show that the motivations of the Founders extended well beyond narrow and selfish economic interests, built upon Hamilton's observation. He advanced the proposition that the Founders, or most of them at any rate, were motivated by "the love of fame," a passion that reconciled self-interest with the pursuit of noble goals that ...