our author speaking is william hoagland, he has written multiple books on early u.s. history, including bottom of the black sneak, declaration, the whiskey rebellion, and founding finance. he is also the author of a recent -- contributor, i should say, of a recent publication of historians on hamilton. he has also penned many essays and articles you can read in places like the atlantic monthly, salon, boston review, huffington post, but none more important than our own magazine, financial history. you can find that on our website. it should be no surprise that the topic of williams next book is alexander hamilton. it is my pleasure to introduce him. [applause] >> thanks a lot. i know the acoustics in here boom a little bit. can anyone hear me? that is good to know. i think some of you know that maybe it is a little bit -- i am a little bit of a fish out of water here. i would like to point out that the museum of american finance has had me speak, this is my third time. my first talk on alexander hamilton and related issues was sponsored by the museum. that was for my