This brilliant book is revelation upon revelation. Who knew of earlier U.S. struggles of justice vs. empire/bribery/slavery, or that Benjamin Franklin’s 1771 visit to Ireland had such profound consequences for Ireland and the United States? Who knew Irish Catholic Matthew Carey, a writer at fifteen for the Irish patriots’ Hibernian Journal, became a writer for Franklin in Paris, and from there to Philadelphia where he played key roles thenceforth in shaping the American System in close association with Alexander Hamilton and others?