Overview
This book restores Aaron Burr to his place as a central figure in the founding of the American Republic. Abolitionist, proto-feminist, friend to such Indian leaders as Joseph Brant, Burr was personally acquainted with a wider range of Americans, and of the American continent, than any other Founder except George Washington. He contested for power with Hamilton and then with Jefferson on a continental scale. The book does not sentimentalize any of its three protagonists, neither does it derogate their extraordinary qualities. They were all great men, all flawed, and all three failed to achieve their full aspirations. But their struggles make for an epic tale.
Written from the perspective of a historian and administrator who, over nearly fifty years in public life, has served six presidents, this book penetrates into the personal qualities of its three central figures. In telling the tale of their shifting power relationships and their antipathies, it reassesses their policies and the consequences of their successes and failures. Fresh information about the careers of Hamilton and Burr is derived from newly-discovered sources, and a supporting cast of secondary figures emerges to give depth and irony to the principal narrative. This is a book for people who know how political life is lived, and who refuse to be confined within preconceptions and prejudices until they have weighed all the evidence, to reach their own conclusions both as to events and character.
This is a controversial book, but not a confrontational one, for it is written with sympathy for men of high aspirations, who were disappointed in much, but who succeeded, in all three cases, to a degree not hitherto fully understood.
Synopsis
This book restores Aaron Burr to his place as a central figure in the founding of the American Republic. Abolitionist, proto-feminist, friend to such Indian leaders as Joseph Brant, Burr was personally acquainted with a wider range of Americans, and of the American continent, than any other Founder except George Washington. He contested for power with Hamilton and then with Jefferson on a continental scale. The book does not sentimentalize any of its three protagonists, neither does it derogate their extraordinary qualities. They were all great men, all flawed, and all three failed to achieve their full aspirations. But their struggles make for an epic tale. Written from the perspective of a historian and administrator who, over nearly fifty years in public life, has served six presidents, this book penetrates into the personal qualities of its three central figures. In telling the tale of their shifting power relationships and their antipathies, it reassesses their policies and the consequences of their successes and failures. Fresh information about the careers of Hamilton and Burr is derived from newly-discovered sources, and a supporting cast of secondary figures emerges to give depth and irony to the principal narrative. This is a book for people who know how political life is lived, and who refuse to be confined within preconceptions and prejudices until they have weighed all the evidence, to reach their own conclusions both as to events and character. This is a controversial book, but not a confrontational one, for it is written with sympathy for men of high aspirations, who were disappointed in much, but who succeeded, in all three cases, to a degree not hitherto fully understood.Editorials
Richard J. Tofel
American history buffs will enjoy this book.— Wall Street Journal
Publishers Weekly -
Kennedy (whose career has included stints as director of the National Park Service and CFO of the Ford Foundation) provides a dense rehash of well-known facts about the converging careers of Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Far less accomplished than Thomas Fleming's Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America (Forecasts, Sept. 20), Kennedy's tome is hindered by overblown language and a surfeit of detail. He writes that he hopes to hasten Burr's "return from the exile on that shadowy periphery to which Jefferson consigned him." But Burr's is a tough reputation to resurrect. Since there's no memoir in his own hand arguing the justice of his actions, Kennedy relies instead on journals and (remarkably) letters to Burr's own daughter containing what Kennedy calls "Burr's accountant's notations of sexual encounters for pay" during his exile in Paris. Kennedy suggests Jefferson's charge of treason against Burr was politically motivated. Yet historians concur Burr fomented a genuine plot for insurrection in the West. Where, the reasonable reader asks, can we find middle ground between these opposing notions? If there is a middle ground, it is terrain for which Kennedy fails to draw a credible map. Illus. 40,000 first printing; BOMC and History Book Club alternate selections. (Nov.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.Anthony Brandt
Roger Kennedy comes out of a lengthy political career and writes with the authority of a man who has walked the corridors of power.—Men's Journal