In this podcast episode accompanying Yale's DeVane course America at 250: A History, professors David Blight, Beverly Gage, and Joanne Freeman discuss Freeman's second week of lectures covering the Federalist essays and the early republic. The conversation examines the historical figure of Alexander Hamilton in more complicated terms than his popular reputation suggests, questioning how much a modern audience would actually find likable about him. As a companion to the formal DeVane lectures, the episode offers an informal discussion format in which the three historians react to and build on Freeman's material.