Burr, Hamilton and Jefferson: A Study in Character

By Roger G. Kennedy

Book 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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195140559
• ISBN13: 9780195140552
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 1.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Excellent

This book has been given quite a good number of reviews on this site, so I would like to merely add some pertinent points. In my opinion, the format that Kennedy used in this book, zooming backward and forward in time, and in and out from one scenario or character to the next, was wholly appropriate given the task he set for himself. Kennedy did not intend, nor claim to intend, to review the full chronological history here...

A Burrite is Pleased

This is an enormously satisfying book, one that goes farther to rescue Aaron Burr from an undeserved historical contempt than any book since Gore Vidal's elegant fiction BURR. It is still a reflex to dismiss Thomas Jefferson1s first Vice-President as a sly scheming traitor who murdered the well-beloved Hamilton in a one-sided duel where Hamilton deliberately and romantically threw away his shot.. It is all thoughtless...

If You Want History Without Halos---This Is It!

Unlike the current flood of Founding Father hagiography, Roger Kennedy's look at the fractious ties between Jefferson, Hamilton, and Burr gives you the sense of these characters as their contemporaries knew them. Kennedy writes the way your favorite college professor lectured---with humor and a profound grasp of how mortals act in the political trenches. His insights into the early struggle over slavery at that stage...

If You Want History Without Halos---This Is It!

Unlike the current flood of Founding Father hagiography, Roger Kennedy's look at the fractious ties between Jefferson, Hamilton, and Burr gives you the sense of these characters as their contemporaries knew them. Kennedy writes the way your favorite college professor lectured---with humor and a profound grasp of how motrals act in the political trenches. His insights into the early struggle over slavery at that early...

If You Want History Without Halos---This Is It!

Unlike the current flood of Founding Father hagiography, Roger Kennedy's look at the fractious ties between Jefferson, Hamilton, and Burr gives you the sense of these characters as their contemporaries knew them. Kennedy writes the way your favorite college professor lectured---with humor and a profound grasp of how motrals act in the political trenches. His insights into the early struggle over slavery at that early...