Nancy Spannaus and The American System of Economics

I had the honor of interviewing Nancy Spannaus, reading her books, and conversing with her on some of her Zoom presentations. Hamilton’s American System of Economics, which she so powerfully explained, can help us (as it did so many times in the past). On Amazon, here’s Hamilton versus Wall Street: The Core Principles of the American System of Economics.

Below is a new statement on her blog. May she rest in peace. -Bruce

By americansystemnow / In About / February 15, 2026

A message to our readers on the future of this blog:

Nancy Spannaus founded this blog in 2017, and over the years she built it into a powerful source of knowledge and information on Alexander Hamilton, the American System of Political Economy, and how adherents of Hamilton and the American System built modern industrial economies in many nations. Her first postings were summary sketches of leading figures in promoting the American System – including economists Henry Carey and Friederich List, and U.S. Presidents from George Washington and John Quincy Adam, through Lincoln and William McKinley, up to FDR and JFK – showing each of their relationships to Hamiltonian economics and the American System.

From 2017 to late 2025, Nancy posted over 600 articles elaborating these ideas and the leaders who promoted them, as well as their relevance to today’s conditions.

Mindful of the Founder’s admonitions against faction and partisan politics (wherein emotional attachments to one’s “team” overrides rational and principled discourse, and the true national interest), the blog eschewed the type of irrational cheerleading which characterizes much of what passes for politics in the United States today.

With the 250^th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party in December 2023, Nancy noted that we were entering into “the hot phase” of preparation for the 250^th Anniversary of American independence in 2026. She said at that time that this blog would steer a principled and honest approach to the American Revolution between the two extremes of either (1) whitewashing the horrors of chattel slavery, and sweeping our Nation’s flaws under the rug in the name of “patriotism,” or (2) asserting that the foundation of this country was so flawed from the beginning that we never should have declared independence from Great Britain.

A few weeks before this Nancy had published her book, Defeating Slavery: Hamilton’s American System Showed the Way, to refute the notion that slavery was in America’s DNA, and to show that the most vigorous anti-slavery activity anywhere in the world in the 18^th century took place in the colonies of British North America.

So, where do we go from here?

It is our intention – “we” being Nancy’s husband, her son, and a handful of close friends and collaborators – to carry her work forward by continuing to publish the blog, and to expand it to related aspects of American foreign policy and historiography.

None of us, individually or collectively, can replicate Nancy’s 50 years of study of Hamilton and the Hamiltonian American System. What we can do, while continuing to publish material on Hamilton and the American System, is to also broaden our focus to related topics of economic and historical interest, demonstrating the relevance of these time-tested ideas to our circumstances today, and to the future of the nation and, indeed, the entire world.

We will submit posts and articles reflecting our own areas of expertise, and we will, on a selective basis, solicit contributions from others that shed light on these issues and principles and their importance in our era.

We hope that you, our readers, will continue to support our efforts in this difficult time, to chart a path forward which can overcome the various crises that our nation and the world face today and tomorrow.

Edward Spannaus
Andrew Spannaus
Jeffrey Steinberg
Michele Steinberg
John Ascher

February 15, 2026