The American Revolution Round Table of New York

New York's Revolutionaries
Sybil Ludington
Sybil Ludington (1761-1839), at the age of 16, rode alone through an April night, from her home in Putnam County, NY, to warn local militia of a British advance upon the Continental Army's supply depot in Danbury, CT.

Next Meeting

Date: Tuesday, April 1, 2025

Time: 7:30 pm

Where: On-line via Zoom

Speaker: William Hogeland

Subject: The Hamilton Scheme: An Epic Tale of Money and Power in the American Founding

Alexander Hamilton has become a global celebrity. Millions know his name and imagine knowing the man. But what did he really want for the country? What risks did he run in pursuing those vaulting ambitions? Who tried to stop him? How did they fight? It’s ironic that the Hamilton revival has obscured the man’s most dramatic battles and hardest-won achievements—as well as downplaying unsettling aspects of his legacy.

Thrilling to the romance of becoming the one-man inventor of a modern nation, our first Treasury secretary fostered growth by engineering an ingenious dynamo—banking, public debt, manufacturing—for concentrating national wealth in the hands of a government-connected elite. Seeking American prosperity, he built American oligarchy. Hence his animus and mutual sense of betrayal with Jefferson and Madison—and his career-long fight to suppress a rowdy egalitarian movement little remembered today: the eighteenth-century white working class.

Marshaling an idiosyncratic cast of insiders and outsiders, vividly dramatizing backroom intrigues and literal street fights—and sharply dissenting from recent biographies—William Hogeland’s The Hamilton Scheme brings to life Hamilton’s vision and the struggles over democracy, wealth, and the meaning of America that drove the nation's creation and hold enduring significance today.

The Hamilton Scheme


William Hogeland

William Hogeland was born in Virginia and grew up in the borough of Brooklyn. His career began as a playwright and performer. His work in founding American history blends character-driven drama with sharp dissent from the mode sometimes called “founders chic.” His books unearth stories of founding conflicts that are little discussed precisely because they’re elemental, sometimes to uncomfortable degrees. He is the author of the Wild Early Republic trilogy: The Whiskey Rebellion, Declaration, and Autumn of the Black Snake. His essays have been published in Boston Review, The New Republic, The Atlantic, Lapham’s Quarterly, The Oxford American, American History, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and elsewhere.

Cost: As long as ARRT-NY is meeting "virtually," our Board of Governors has decided to forego all charges. ARRT-NY's meetings are currently free and open to all.

Instructions for connecting to each Zoom meeting will be e-mailed to all members, together with their newsletters, approximately two weeks before the event. Non-members and former members are welcome, but requested to register 24 hours in advance of the meeting by e-mailing Board Member and Meeting Co-Host Andrea Meyer.

Future ARRT-NY Meetings

Dr. Joanne Grasso, Program Chairman, has arranged for the following scholar to address the final session of our 2024-2025 season:
  • June 3, 2025 -- Jack Warren, Freedom: The Enduring Importance of the American Revolution

    • About ARRT-NY Meetings

    The Coffee House

    For ten years (2011-2020), ARRT-NY met at The Coffee House in mid-Manhattan which, notwithstanding its name, is a private business-persons' luncheon club that has been in existence over a century. It was dedicated exclusively to ARRT-NY for five evenings each year. Unfortunately, that situation has not survived, and ARRT-NY is searching for new arrangements for future social gatherings.

    Take a look at our photo gallery of a recent meeting!

    ARRT-NY's Recent Featured Speakers

    February 2025 Kevin J. Weddle The Compleat Victory: Saratoga and the American Revolution
    December 2024 Don N. Hagist Waging War in America 1775-1783: Operational Challenges of Five Armies During the American Revolution
    October 2024 Robert P. Watson George Washington’s Final Battle: The Epic Struggle to Build a Capital City and a Nation
    June 2024 Jack Kelly God Save Benedict Arnold: The True Story of America's Most Hated Man
    April 2024 Brooke Barbier King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father
    February 2024 Richard Melnick Long Island City in 1776: The Revolution Comes to Queens
    December 2023 Ricardo A. Herrea Feeding Washington's Army: Surviving the Valley Forge Winter of 1778
    October 2023 George Kotlik East Florida in the Revolutionary Era, 1763-1785
    June 2023 Christopher F. Minty Unfriendly to Liberty: Loyalist Networks and the Coming of the American Revolution in New York City
    April 2023 Benjamin L. Carp The Great New York Fire of 1776: A Lost Story of the American Revolution
    February 2023 Ann M. Becker Smallpox in Washington's Army: Disease, War, and Society During the Revolutionary War
    December 2022 John Buchanan The Battle of Musgrove's Mill, 1780
    October 2022 Andrew Porwancher The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton
    June 2022 Christian McBurney Dark Voyage: An American Privateer's War on Britain's African Slave Trade
    April 2022 Per-Olof Hasselgren Revolutionary Surgeons: Patriots and Loyalists on the Cutting Edge
    February 2022 Michael C. Harris Germantown: A Military History of the Battle for Philadelphia, October 4, 1777
    December 2021 Steven Elliott Surviving the Winters: Housing Washington's Army during the American Revolution
    October 2021 Norman Desmarais The Road to Yorktown: The French Campaigns in the American Revolution, 1780-1783
    June 2021 John Buchanan "The Southern Campaign"
    April 2021 Mark Edward Lender "The Middle Atlantic Campaign"
    February 2021 Dr. Glenn Williams "The Northern Campaign"
    December 2020 Christian McBurney George Washington's Nemesis: The Outrageous Treason and Unfair Court-Martial of Major General Charles Lee during the Revolutionary War
    October 2020 John Gilbert McCurdy Quarters: The Accommodation of the British Army and the Coming of the American Revolution
    February 2020 Michael C. Harris
    Jonathan Carriel    		 Brandywine: A Military History of the Battle that Lost Philadelphia but Saved America, September 11, 1777
    "The Battle of Golden Hill, New York City, January 19, 1770"
    December 2019 D.A.B. Ronald The Life of John André: The Redcoat Who Turned Benedict Arnold
    October 2019 Mary Stockwell Unlikely General: "Mad" Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America
    June 2019 Kevin Gutzman Thomas Jefferson - Revolutionary: A Radical's Struggle to Remake America
    April 2019 John Buchanan The Road to Charleston: Nathanael Greene and the American Revolution
    February 2019 Christian Di Spigna Founding Martyr: The Life and Death of Dr. Joseph Warren, the American Revolution's Lost Hero
    December 2018 Mark Edward Lender Fatal Sunday: George Washington, the Monmouth Campaign, and the Politics of Battle
    October 2018 Dr. Joanne Grasso George Washington's 1790 Grand Tour of Long Island
    June 2018 Christian McBurney Abductions in the American Revolution: Attempts to Kidnap George Washington, Benedict Arnold and Other Military and Civilian Leaders
    April 2018 Brooke Barbier Boston in the American Revolution: A Town Versus an Empire
    February 2018 Peter Lubrecht New Jersey Hessians: Truth and Lore in the American Revolution
    December 2017 Robert Ernest Hubbard Major General Israel Putnam: Hero of the American Revolution
    October 2017 Tom Shachtman How the French Saved America: Soldiers, Sailors, Diplomats, Louis XVI and the Success of a Revolution
    June 2017 Arthur Lefkowitz Eyewitness Images from the American Revolution
    April 2017 George C. Daughan Revolution on the Hudson: New York City and the Hudson River Valley in the American War of Independence
    February 2017 Bruce M. Venter The Battle of Hubbardton: The Rear Guard Action that Saved America
    December 2016 John Oller The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution
    October 2016 Dr. Joanne Grasso The American Revolution on Long Island
    June 2016 Todd W. Braisted Grand Forage 1778: The Battleground Around New York City
    April 2016 Patrick K. O'Donnell Washington's Immortals: The Untold Story of an Elite Regiment Who Changed the Course of the Revolution
    February 2016 John Steele Gordon Washington's Monument: And the Fascinating History of the Obelisk
    December 2015 Kathleen DuVal Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution
    October 2015 Christian McBurney Kidnapping the Enemy: The Special Operations to Capture Generals Charles Lee and Richard Prescott
    June 2015 Jonathan Carriel "The Stamp Act Crisis in New York City, 1765"
    April 2015 Thomas Fleming The Great Divide: The Conflict between Washington and Jefferson that Defined a Nation
    February 2015 Tim McGrath Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America's Revolution at Sea
    December 2014 Richard Welch General Washington's Commando: Benjamin Tallmadge in the Revolutionary War
    October 2014 David Young "Cliveden and the Battle of Germantown"
    June 2014 Maureen Taylor The Last Muster: Images of the Revolutionary War Generation
    April 2014 Phillip Papas Renegade Revolutionary: The Life of General Charles Lee
    February 2014 Andréw O'Shaughnessy The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of the Empire
    December 2013 Richard Radune Sound Rising: Long Island Sound in the Forefront of America's Struggle for Independence
    October 2013 John Nagy Benjamin Church: Spy
    June 2013 Kevin Phillips 1775: A Good Year for Revolution
    April 2013 Stephen H. Case Treacherous Beauty: Peggy Shippen
    February 2013 Christian McBurney The Rhode Island Campaign
    December 2012 Todd Andrlik Reporting the Revolutionary War
    October 2012 Arthur Lefkowitz Benedict Arnold in the Company of Heroes
    June 2012 Thomas Schaeper Edward Bancroft: Scientist, Author, Spy
    April 2012 Joseph Smith "Philip Freneau"
    February 2012 Richard Berleth Bloody Mohawk: The French and Indian War & American Revolution on New York's Frontier
    December 2011 Maya Jasanoff Liberty's Exiles: American Loyalists in the Revolutionary World
    October 2011 John Nagy Invisible Ink: Spycraft of the American Revolution