Duel Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, And The Future Of America

by Fleming, Thomas

• ISBN13: 9780465017379
• ISBN10: 0465017371
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-09-05
• Publisher: Basic Books
• More Book Details

Summary

All school children know the story of the fatal duel between Hamilton and Burr - but do they really? In this remarkable retelling, Thomas Fleming takes the reader into the post-revolutionary world of 1804, a chaotic and fragile time in the young country as well as a time of tremendous global instability.The success of the French Revolution and the proclamation of Napoleon as First Consul for Life had enormous impact on men like Hamilton and Burr, feeding their own political fantasies at a time of perceived Federal government weakness and corrosion. Their hunger for fame spawned antagonisms that wreaked havoc on themselves and their families and threatened to destabilize the fragile young American republic. From that poisonous brew came the tangle of regret and anger and ambition that drove the two to their murderous confrontation in Weehawken, New Jersey.Readers will find this is popular narrative history at its most authoritative, and authoritative history at its most readable.

Author Biography

Thomas Fleming is the author of more than forty books, including The New Dealers' War, Duel, and Liberty! The American Revolution, as well as best-selling novels about America's war experience such as Time and Tide and The Officers' Wives. Fleming is a frequent guest on and contributor to NPR, PBS, A&E, and the History Channel. He lives in New York City and Westbrook, Connecticut.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Acknowledgments	xiii
A General Nurses His Wounds	1	(30)
The Quarrelsome Men of Gotham	31	(22)
The New Caesar's Long Shadow	53	(26)
The Temptations of a Vice President	79	(24)
Politicians in the Wilderness	103	(30)
A Wary Candidate Tests the Waters	133	(16)
From Migraine to Miracle	149	(16)
Resist, Resist, Resist the Demagogues!	165	(24)
Does Impeachment Justify Secession?	189	(16)
Mudslingers Front and Center	205	(16)
From the Low Road to the Depths	221	(16)
A Distracted Dictator and an Etiquette-Mad President	237	(16)
A Ruined Politician Has a Midnight Visitor	253	(12)
Light in the Labyrinth	265	(18)
Honor's Deadly Ritual	283	(18)
Why Soldiers Why?	301	(20)
This Is a Mortal Wound, Doctor	321	(12)
Muffled Drums and Beckoning Destiny	333	(22)
Afterward	355	(52)
Notes	407	(22)
Index	429