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Rating: 
Summary: Feuding Fathers
Review: Aaron Burr has long been dismissed as one of the bad boys of American history. The Revolutionary War hero and onetime VP under Jefferson shot his political future in the foot when he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804, and was later tried for treason for conspiring to invade Mexico.Here Roger Kennedy retrieves Burr from the slag heap of history and rehabilitates him as perhaps the most progressive of the founding fathers: a fervent abolitionist, early feminist and friend to the Indians long before such ideals were considered kosher. To Hamilton and Jefferson, Kennedy is not so kind. Hamilton cuts an almost pathetic figure as a frustrated politician who projects his own failures onto Burr and determines to ruin him even at the cost of his own life. Meanwhile, Kennedy's Jefferson is craven, duplicitous and vindictive. But Burr's image has suffered because he could never match Hamilton's skills as spin doctor, nor could he compete with the voluminous paper trail left behind by Jefferson. Whereas the sage of Monticello meticulously copied every scrap he wrote, most of Burr's papers were lost at sea, along with his last surviving daughter and would-be biographer, Theodosia. Despite this imbalance in the documentary evidence, Kennedy presents a compelling case that Burr was not a traitor, as Jefferson charged in 1806. (Burr was later acquitted of treason by four separate juries, an indication of Jefferson's stubbornness as much as Burr's probable innocence.) Instead, Kennedy shows that Burr exhibited every sign of loyalty to the young republic, whose borders he probably hoped to expand by force--much as Jefferson would do by checkbook with the Louisiana Purchase.
Rating: 
Summary: Complete Rambling
Review: One of the worst books I've ever attempted to read. The author rambles from Burr to Hamilton to Jefferson with no thread between the characters or background. The author assumes you know all the background and gives you his opinions on it. Don't waste you time on this as I did!
Rating: 
Summary: Burr beats Hamilton again, and Jefferson for the first time
Review: Roger Kennedy freely acknowledges at the beginning of this study that he has a point of view: Aaron Burr had a greater character and value to our nation than his reputation provides, while Hamilton and Jefferson had lesser character and value to our nation than their reputations. This book is a clear and concise defense of Aaron Burr, amply annotated, easily read, and quite entertaining. On a larger scale, the study gives reason to contemplate the formulation of reputation, especially historically. Had not Burr's daughter perished at sea with all his notes and letters, we might have a much greater opinion of Burr. Any fair reader of this book will come to a much deeper appreciation for Burr, the man, and the failures and shortcomings of Hamilton and Jefferson. I highly commend this book to your attention.
Rating:
Summary: Mostly Burr, Some Jefferson, and a Little Bit of Hamilton
Review: The author has amassed a lot of detail about primary figures in the early history of the United States. A fascinating read by a guy who's had a very diverse set of careers. By bringing out Burr's role in the early days of the USA the author has really made those times live again. Since many of us are taught canards in school- that Burr was a baddie and that Jefferson was a saint, it becomes very difficult to have much understanding of the finer points of early US history, this book is an antidote. By using evidence of his subject's character, the author is able to flesh out intent behind action. Occasionally the sentence structure is a bit complex but he's making sure you're getting your money's worth. A lovely passage describing the upper Mississippi river valley shows the author's ability to paint pictures of the natural world as well as that of human society. From Forrest McDonald's biography of Alexander Hamilton I always felt like I had a pretty good feel for the last 25 years of the 18th century and how my country was put together. After learning about the often dismissed alter ego of Hamilton, I have a much better feel for the personality and character of the principle individuals involved. As a principle elucidator and salesman for the Constituition and George Washington's right hand man we can give Hamilton a lot of credit for the strength and character of this nation, but it was Aaron Burr and those like him, the unique American type possesed of a certain wiliness and strength of character, that were the raw material it was formed out of.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: 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. His intention was to zoom in on what he saw as the salient elements of the characters of these men. This style should not be confusing to one who has read previous biographies and histories of these men. I found the book immensely gratifying. I have been a "student" of Burr history for over twenty years. The truth is, there are a tremendous number of discrepancies in prior accounts of Burr, which no previous scholar has resolved. Kennedy has pulled together a massive amount of material to bring together the facts which lead to his insights, and I believe that those insights are dead-on right.
Rating:
Summary: A Burrite is Pleased
Review: This is an enormously satisfying book, one that goes farther to rescue Aaron Burr from an undeserved historical contempt than any book since Gore Vida1's elegant fiction BURR. It is still a reflex to dismiss Thomas Jefferson's 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 and unscrutinized balderdash, and Kennedy has a wonderful time proving it. There are surprising and provocative ideas on every page, and fascinating portraits of the brilliant neurotic Hamilton, and the almost perfect hypocrisy and subtle genius of Thomas Jefferson. Most of all, however, is the picture Kennedy draws of the witty, graceful gentleman who was Aaron Burr. Kennedy call him America's first professional politician, but he was far more than that(and if he was that, what was Jefferson?) To say that he was an abolitionist and a feminist does not really do him justice; he practiced what he preached, as Kennedy amply describes, fifty, even a hundred, even two hundred years ahead of his time. His generosity was outsized, his intellect keen, without cant or self-delusion. A scion of one of the colonies first and oldest familes, he was an honest to God Revolutionary War hero not once but many times, (unlike The Sage of Monticello, to say the least). Like Jane Austen's Gentleman, Burr never apologized and never explained. This last was a grievous mistake, because his silence, to his contemporaries and to posterity, though elegant, ceded much ground to his enemies. Much of Burr's abolitionist activity was done in association with Alexander Hamilton, whose anti-slavery views were grounded in his youth in the West Indies, where he could see slavery and its affect close up. There was much to admire in both of these men, and their contemporaries did so. But Hamilton carried a molten envy of Burr for many years, years during which Burr apparently had not a clue that his friend-rival-ally-competitor was viciously and continuously slandering him, sharing opinions about Burr that went beyond the norm of political rivalry, making certain that Burr would not succeed in politics even if it meant that Jefferson whom he despised, would. But Burr was more than Hamilton1s opponent; he was the man who, in almost every respect, from military heroism to family background to manners to wit to success with the ladies, Hamilton yearned to be. And everything Hamilton hated in himself, argues Kennedy, he projected on to Burr. And then there is Jefferson. It has become open season on Jefferson these last few years, and high time too. Jefferson's undoubted brilliance as a literary stylist and his extraordinary ability as a practical and cunning politician have kept him at the top of the heap for decade after decade, but much of that vaunted reputation The Great Democrat, or The Great Commoner, or the Great Something or Other, does not hold up under close scrutiny. Jefferson knew when to flatter, and when to betray, as when he broke his oath to Burr in 1800 and bargained for the Presidency. He wrote the undying phrase that all men are created equal, and then strangled the L'Ourverture Revolution in Haiti because he was terrified of black sovereignty. Kennedy is wonderful in discerning plausible motives to Jefferson's unquenchable need to destroy Burr, a man who might very well have moved up abolitions' cause by 50 years. The various accounts of back room snakiness by The Sage, and the description of the similarity between Jefferson's Western machinations both before and after Burr's trial for treason for the same activities(which Jefferson pushed with a Shakespearean malignity) are priceless. There are greater tragedies in America's past, I suppose, than the consignment of Aaron Burr to the Most Reviled Villain Category, but it feels terribly unjust. And the easy and even glib way many of our teachers and historians wave airy hands of dismissal in Burr's direction does rankle however, to say nothing of the ongoing worship of The Sage, also airy, also unscrutinized. Roger Kennedy has created a thoughtful, witty, outraged response to all that.
Rating:
Summary: A Burrite is Pleased
Review: 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 and unscrutinized balderdash, and Kennedy has a wonderful time proving it. There are surprising and provocative ideas on every page, and fascinating portraits of the brilliant neurotic Hamilton, and the almost perfect hypocrisy and subtle genius of Thomas Jefferson. Most of all, however, is the picture Kennedy draws of the witty, graceful gentleman who was Aaron Burr. Kennedy calls him America's first professional politician, but he was far more than that. To say that he was an abolitionist or a feminist does not really do him justice; he practiced what he preached, as Kennedy amply describes, fifty, even a hundred, even two hundred years ahead of his time. His generosity was outsized, his intellect without cant or self-delusion. A scion of one of the colonies first and oldest familes, he was an honest to God Revolutionary War hero not once but many times, (unlike The Sage of Monticello, to say the least). Like Jane Austen's Gentleman, Burr never apologized and never explained. This last was a grievous mistake, because his silence, to his contemporaries and to posterity, though elegant, ceded much ground to his enemies. There was much to admire in both Hamilton and Burr, and their contemporaries did so. But Hamilton carried molten envy of Burr for many years, years during which Burr apparently had not a clue that his friend-rival-ally-competitor was viciously and continuously slandering him, sharing opinions about Burr that went beyond the norm of political rivalry, making certain that Burr would not succeed in politics even if it meant that Jefferson whom he despised, would. But Kennedy suggests that Burr was more than Hamilton's opponent; he was the man who, in almost every respect, from military heroism to family background to manners to wit to success with the ladies, Hamilton yearned to be. And everything Hamilton hated in himself, argues Kennedy, he projected on to Burr. And then there is Jefferson. It has become open season on Jefferson these last few years, and high time too. Jefferson's undoubted brilliance as a literary stylist and his extraordinary ability as a practical and cunning politician have kept him at the top of the heap for decade after decade, but perhaps there is less here than meets the eye. Kennedy is wonderful in discerning plausible motives to Jefferson's unquenchable need to destroy Burr, a man who might very well have moved up abolition1s cause by 50 years. The various accounts of back room snakiness by The Sage, and the similarity between Jefferson1s Western machinations both before and after Burr's trial for treason for the same activities(which Jefferson pushed with a Shakespearean malignity) are priceless. There are greater tragedies in American's past, I suppose, than the consignment of Aaron Burr to the Most Reviled Villain Category, but it feels terribly unjust. And the easy unscrutinized way many of our teachers and historians wave airy hands of dismissal does rankle, to say nothing of the ongoing worship of The Sage, also airy, also unscrutinized. Roger Kennedy has created a thoughtful, witty, outraged response to all that.
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