American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America by David O. Stewart

American Emperor: Aaron Burr's Challenge to Jefferson's America Reviews

• 
  Stephen

  Before reading this excellent biography of Aaron Burr biography, the sum total of my knowledge regarding this enigmatic figure was that he "popped a cap" in Alexander Hamilton during their famous duel.
  
  
  
  Turns out that dropping Mr. Hamilton was a mere peccadillo compared to the boldly treasonous ruckus he tried to stir up out west in the early 19th century. Even more shocking to me was that Burr was Vice President under Thomas Jefferson during a large chunk of his traitorous doings, and was open and upfront enough about his endeavors that newspapers of the time ran articles decrying his rebellious activities.
  
  Having now read about everything that Burr tried to do (i.e., aid Spain in cutting off the U.S from the West, foment secession of the Western territories, and even invade the United States and install himself as ruler), I am stunned that his story is not more widely known and that Americans do not spend a holiday each year commemorating his death by burning/stomping/defiling him in effigy.
  
  HISTORICAL INFORMATION:
  
  From the perspective of both the information provided and the ease with which I absorbed it, this biography deserves at least 4 stars, and maybe even 5. While I’m only an amateur history buff, the War of Independence and the formation of the United States is one of my favorite historical periods. I’ve read a number of works, including biographies on the founder fathers (
  John Adams being my favorite), seminal works on the revolutionary war (e.g.,
  The Winter Soldiers: The Battles for Trenton and Princeton and
  1776) and award-winning examination of the creation of the American Republic (
  The Radicalism of the American Revolution).
  
  Yet, despite that prior reading experience, almost every word in Stewart’s book was new to me. Facts I didn’t know…characters I was unfamiliar with…people I was familiar with but shown in a light that was completely novel. From this standpoint, I could not have asked for me. Even the Hamilton/Burr duel was laid out in a way that I was able to learn a great deal more about the famous event, most notably that Hamilton was as much at fault (if not more so) for the events that led to the fatal encounter.
  
  Beyond that, some of the major historical matters of which I was completely, shamefully unaware:
  
  ** The pervasive and significant foreign intrigue undertaken by the Country of Spain to halt the expansion of the fledgling United States westward.
  
  ** That General James Wilkinson, while THE senior military officer in the whole United States Army, was a paid operative in service to the Spanish government. (By the way, as bad as Burr was, Wilkinson was 10 times more wretched, and he should be high on the list of most despicable Americans in U.S history.) As one historian put it, Wilkinson was "the most consummate artist in treason that the nation ever possessed."
  
  ** The deliciously duplicitous tri-party diplomacy among France, England and Spain involving the “new kid on the block,” and the rather fortuitous events that led to the Louisiana Purchase…along with just how important that event was in safeguarding the existence of the United States.
  
  ** How strong and vocal the secessionist feelings were in Americans living out west, and how close the country came to being a series of regional territories rather than a single nation. Slavery may have exacerbated these feelings 50 years later, but they were present, powerful and very public much, much earlier.
  
  Each of these events are explored in varying degrees of detail as they intersect with Aaron Burr’s attempt to foment discontent and rebellion in order to set himself up as…an American Emperor.
  
  As for Burr himself, the author does a good job of laying out the man’s story without allowing bias to creep into the narrative. Burr was certainly a villain, a traitor, and man whose arrogance and personal conceit rivaled that of his contemporary Napoleon Bonaparte, who he would have liked to have emulated.
  
  Unlike the founding parents who nursed the United States from birth in toddlerhood, Burr never embraced the principles of liberty, self determination, and the rule of law upon which the country was founded. Rather, Burr sought adventure, his own personal wealth and glory, and rule by the most able (namely himself). He was a reckless businessman, a serial womanizer, and a scheming politician who always looked out for himself.
  
  However…
  
  He also hated slavery and held advanced views (for the time) on women’s rights, believing they deserved equal treatment with men. Stewart reports that, while in London, Burr even sought out the company of Mary Wollstonecraft’s children because of his high regard for her work. Burr also had a tremendous sense of personal honor and was someone who never betrayed or abandoned his friends. The book examines several instances of Burr taking in and caring for friends in need and his compassion for them comes through as genuine and heartfelt.
  
  It is hard not to at least respect that.
  
  In addition, Burr was someone who appeared to have a deep love for children, both his own relations and those he came in contact with. Stewart relays in his book how Burr doted on children and even adopted several to care for and give a step up in life.
  
  All of these conflicting personal qualities work to muddy the profile of this enigmatic figure of which relatively little is known. They make his actions both harder to understand, as well as much more human.
  
  Aaron Burr was a despicable American, a traitor who would have willingly sold the future of the new nation into servitude to a foreign power. He deserves our universal castigation for that, and I dislike the man intensely.
  
  But Stewart shows us that he was not necessarily a despicable human being. Flawed, vain and unencumbered by the national pride and philosophical ideals of his contemporaries, but not a monster within the four walls of his own skin.
  
  I think that makes all the harm he tried to cause that much more frightening.
  
  PRESENTATION:
  
  So why only 3 stars?
  
  First, it’s really 3.5 stars and came very close to getting 4. However, in the end, as much as I learned from this experience, the narrative presentation was not up to the standard I have come to hope for in these kinds of historical works. You can blame David McCullough, Gordon Wood and Barbara Tuchman for my exaggerated sense of entitlement when it comes to history. I want captivating, energetic, evocative story-telling. Stewart’s writing and presentation were fine, even good, but I never found myself truly engulfed by the story.
  
  Thus:
  
  4 to 5 stars for subject matter, quality of information and objectivity; and
  
  3 stars for presentation and attention-holding =
  
  3.5 stars and one that is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
  
• 
  Louise

  Aaron Burr is clearly the most provocative founder. This book essentially begins at his time as sitting vice president when he was wanted for murder. After he left office, he was tried for treason 6 times. David Stewart chronicles how Burr got himself into this mess, and what became of it all.
  
  Aaron Burr has intrigued me since I read Gore Vidal's fictional take
  Burr on his improbable career. Amazing, a sitting Vice-President duels with a former Secretary of the Treasury and is wanted for murder in two states! He then embarks on a great adventure to rally militias to conquer Spanish territories. After his 6th trial and acquittal treason (6 times) he goes abroad to continue to raise funds for his militia.
  
  Author David O. Stewart gives the best account of Burr's post-duel adventure I have seen. It is heavily documented from what little writing Burr left behind, the public record, and the papers, memoirs and autobiographies of others, and newspaper accounts of the time.
  
  Nancy Isenberg in her
  Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr gives a spirited defense of this man who would, but for one vote, have been President. She shows how he expanded voter eligibility, fostered public works, cared about the rights of women and, while a slave owner himself, understood the hypocrisy of the rhetoric of the time. H.W. Brands gives a sympathetic treatment of Burr, through research on the toll Burr's actions and enemies took on him personally,
  The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr.
  
  Stewart doesn't enter the debate on the character of Burr. He keeps a tight narrative of what Burr did and why he was acquitted.
  
  This book is important for bringing together all this material., and has the benefit of being an engaging read as well.
• 
  Kusaimamekirai

  Oh Aaron Burr! What a walking, talking, scheming ball of chaos you were.
  No other former Vice President (never has such a meaningless office with few responsibilities met a man so awash in ambition and intrigues) has ever been so comically mismatched for that office than a man like Burr, who tried to pull at the turn of the nineteenth century, something that almost boggles the imagination.
  It goes a little something like this.
  Burr’s term as Vice President was winding down. He had just killed under murky circumstances the nation’s darling, Alexander Hamilton, in a duel and was facing indictments in both New York and New Jersey for murder.
  For a man as vain as Burr, the idea that his political career was over and worse, he’d become irrelevant, was too much to bear.
  So Burr does what any of us would do under the circumstances, start a war whose aim was to get the western territories to secede from the Union and install him as a quasi-emperor.
  Oh and invade Mexico.
  The thing is, he came really, really close.
  The West at the time lacked a significant U.S. military presence and French speaking Louisiana in particular, fresh off the Louisiana purchase, was no fan of the government. A 6,000 man force that Burr had come close to assembling could have easily taken it and potentially held it.
  Unfortunately for Burr, perhaps fortunately for the United States as we know them, he was essentially a big idea salesman. His skills at executing those ideas left a lot to be desired.
  In particular, as his accomplices he chose some high profile (the head of the U.S. army, assorted generals, and even Andrew Jackson at one point) but bumbling and unreliable characters. Some of whom failed to provide the services they promised while others simply sold him out when their own lives were at stake.
  Burr was also fortunate that Jefferson was President at the time. Jefferson was no fan of Burr but inexplicably, ignored or dismissed multiple warnings from multiple sources that Burr was massing men and weapons to start a war. Even to the point that they had a sit down meeting in the White House where Burr went all Jack Bauer and told Jefferson that if he didn’t appoint him to some government office, he was going to hurt him.
  This is for me the craziest part of an incredibly crazy story, that Burr essentially did most of this in plain sight. There were hundreds of people who knew of his plans, many more could see the massing of men at the borders, and yet somehow nobody believed such a crazy story.
  Reading about him, I’m both fascinated and appalled by him. Fascinated that anyone could have the chutzpah to not only dream up such an improbable scheme, but also have the charm to convince enough people to believe in it.
  But that was Burr. Killer of Hamilton, advocate for women’s rights, lover of prostitutes, devoted father, defrauder of New York City who promised clean water through his private company only to change it to a private bank for a political slush fund.
  He was in every sense a larger than life character. Traitor? Probably. Someone who deserves to be better known and understood? Without a doubt.
• 
  Mary

  "American Emperor" is a well-written biography of an unbelievably slippery and elusive subject. If you had any doubts that Aaron Burr was an infamous historical figure, this book will surely confirm that view. Yet it is not his duel with Alexander Hamilton but, rather, Burr's convoluted (and seriously misguided) plans and risky undertakings thereafter that are the subject of this book. Had Burr been able to accomplish whatever it was that he set out to do -- and it is still unclear to this day exactly what that was -- American history would have turned out quite differently.
• 
  Lauren Albert

  I found this really interesting. I only vaguely remembered that Burr had been charged with treason. Like many people, my strongest association with Burr was his killing of Alexander Hamilton in a duel. One thing puzzles me though. Stewart seems to make the case so clear that his later statement that Jefferson charged him with only weak evidence was confusing. But obviously the difference between knowledge and proof are different.
  
  For those of you who like me before I read the book know nothing about these events, Burr (though he had constantly changing plans) seems to have had two goals���to cause the western states to secede from the union and to invade Mexico and “liberate” it from the Spanish. The title of the book is based on the clear implication by many that Burr intended to make himself emperor.
  
  The most shocking thing about the book is that Burr conspired with two foreign governments—one while he was still Vice President! As Stewart points out, the prosecution did not have access to this information and historians would not until much later as they remained buried in foreign archives.
  
  “’Burr’s enterprise,’ Jefferson wrote with wonder, ‘is the most extravagant since the days of Don Quixote.’” 201 I can only agree.
  
• 
  Katherine

  So, the only reason I started reading this book is because I grew up believing that we were related to Aaron Burr through my maternal grandmother's ancestor Marietta Burr, and I have always wanted to know more about him. I made it about halfway through, and the book was interesting, but kind of dry, and I have other things on my urgent reading list, so I wanted to know if I really should finish it in order to feel more simpatico with my great-uncle Aaron. Well, a quick internet search showed that we are NOT related to Aaron in any direct way. So, this is going on my "didn't finish" shelf for now and maybe for always. But, I still love the "Got Milk?" commercial about Aaron Burr!
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLSssw...
• 
  Robert Melnyk

  So, most people have heard about the fact that Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. The fact that Burr went on to conspire against the United States is less known. exactly what Burr intended to do is somewhat up for debate and question, but basically he plotted to wage war against Spain, while convincing the western states to secede from the Union and forming his own country of which he would be "Emperor." From these activities, he was charged and tried for treason in 1807.
  There was even some thought that he was thinking of assassinating Jefferson. Burr was eventually acquitted of all charges (including those from his illegal duel with Hamilton). He lived for a time in Europe, but returned to the United States to live out his life practicing law until his death at the age of 80 in 1836.
• 
  Dayla

  One could draw a Venn Diagram with the strategies used by Aaron Burr during his trial of treason in 1807 and those of Donald Trump used during his two impeachment trials in 2017 and 2021. This book provides details of heretofore , hidden details concerning our third Vice President and a play-by-play trial of his acquittal concerning TREASON. The title « American Emperor » describes Burr and attests to the outsized ego of a narcissist, but this title could also describe the person behind the subterfuge continually presented by a recent American president too. Perhaps 130 years in the future, all will be known about Donald Trump.
• 
  Jimmy

  One of the reasons I read this book was to find out more of the duel between Burr and Alexander Hamilton in which Hamilton was killed. Hamilton had been a constant critic of Burr, whereas Burr has no record of any negative comments against Hamilton. Duels were considered "demonstrations of manner, not marksmanship; they were intricate games of dare and counterdare, ritualized displays of bravery, military prowess, and, above all, willingness to sacrifice one's life for one's honor. Each man's response to the threat of gunplay bore far more meaning than the exchange of gunfire itself."
  
  Hamilton was shot in the side. He spoke and said that it was a mortal wound before he passed out. Burr wanted to return and possibly apologize, but his team rushed him away to avoid arrest or attack by others. It took Hamilton more than a day in agonizing pain to die. Two ministers refused him last rites because of the duel, but finally relented after Hamilton swore he had no intention of hurting Burr. The press portrayed Burr as a murderer. Indictments were issued in New York and New Jersey, but nothing came of them. He fled to the west. But he was still vice president and returned for some duties. Bizzaro World.
  
  Out "west" Burr spoke of liberating Spanish territory in the Floridas and Mexico. He then hoped western states would secede from the union and join him with him as the leader of a new nation. Reminds me of some Texans I know today who wouldn't know a revolution if it hit them in the fucking head. Like Burr, they have no sense of consequences. And it all seems to be about living with people who think like you think.
  
  Burr was tried for treason and acquitted with the help of Chief Justice John Marshall. It wasn't until the Civil War that secession was treated in a different way.
• 
  Jerome Otte

  An absorbing, well-researched and readable book.
  
  Stewart focuses on Burr’s bizarre conspiracy to split off the western territories, describes his reasoning, and covers the colorful cast of characters that combined to thwart Burr’s plan. He also covers Burr’s role in the 1800 election and his relationship with Jefferson. Much of the book deals with his conspiracy (which Stewart argues was more feasible than it sounds), and Stewart ably covers his schemes with James Wilkinson and Harman Blennerhassett, his overtures to the British and Spanish, and Burr’s treason trial, presided over by John Marshall. Stewart argues that Burr was acquitted more due to the inept prosecution than anything Marshall believed or did (this was the beginning of a traditionally narrow American legal definition for treason) He also covers Burr’s move to Europe, where he again looked for allies to support his project; after this failure, Burr ended pursuing empire in favor of women.
  
  Stewart writes with wit, and the narrative is accessible, vivid and colorful. Stewart isn’t too sympathetic towards Burr, who comes off as arrogant and self-serving, but doesn’t set out to write a diatribe either, and the book’s conclusion leaves the verdict up to the reader. Stewart suggests that Burr had no firm plans other than a vague desire to exploit a border with the Spanish to his own profit. Wilkinson was a critical element, and Stewart does a great job picking apart his motives. He also covers the roles played by Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, William Henry Harrison, and Winfield Scott.
  
  A rich, balanced, well-written work.
• 
  Troi

  After getting over the initial reservation I had about devoting so much of my limited time to understanding an American sociopath, I found the book incredibly engaging. Given there was so little documentation left behind by Burr, this biography is incredibly well-documented. There was even less documentation left behind of the whole episode that led to the treason trial itself, yet the events leading up to the trial(s) were clearly and convincingly presented with just the right amount of analysis for my taste. Particularly fascinating to me was the detailed discussion of the treason trial itself. Stewart provided fascinating insight into the judicial system and the courts during this time period as well as the constitutional questions that the courts were grappling with. I was a little disappointed that the biography skipped over his early life completely. The narrative really began with the Hamilton/Burr duel. I understand why since the book really was about his exploits after leaving Washington in disgrace. That said, I would have liked to have had a better understanding of how such a narcissistic and seemingly amoral personality could have developed. I was left wondering whether there were always signs of this behavior and mindset throughout his life. Overall, it was a good read and well worth the effort.
• 
  judy

  My problem isn't the book or the author. It's the detestable subject. Before page 50, Burr has already done two of the three things for which we remember him. The rest of the book covers his treasonous plans and the trial before Chief Justice John Marshall. No doubt fans of our early political history and lawyers similarly inclined will find much of interest in this account. I simply did not want to waste any more time reading about this specific loathsome individual. Modern politics gives us so many more morally repulsive public figures from which to choose on a daily basis.
• 
  Christine

  This is the second book by David O. Stewart that I have brought, and the third that I have read. Detailing the rise and fall of Burr, Stewart’s work is more a political look at the young United States as opposed to a life of Burr. Stewart shows Burr warts and are, and if at times a bit too much repetition or minute looking at issues, it is a pleasant enough way to discover more about Burr than the famous duel.
• 
  Jesse

  Very interesting look at the life of Aaron Burr, starting at the point where most people end: the murder (in a duel) of Alexander Hamilton. It's interesting that I've never heard of this before! I consider myself pretty well versed in early American history, but this was all new to me. And seriously so interesting. Thank goodness that his plans were foiled and we never had to deal with an American Napoleon.
• 
  Mason

  For the armchair historian who wants to follow up on Burr’s life after his fateful duel with Alexander Hamilton, this book picks up right at the point in history where Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical leaves off. What Burr proceeded to do after fleeing New York to escape responsibility for Hamilton’s death was nothing short of unbelievable, one of those instances where a true story proves stranger than any fiction. After having made an enemy of President Jefferson, Burr (who was still Vice President of the United States) embarked on an adventure down the Mississippi River and sought to recruit as many westerners as he could for a planned expedition characterized by shocking hubris and a multitude of supposed secret purposes.
  
  Depending on the telling, Burr was either seeking to peacefully settle the Ouchita River Valley in what is today the state of Louisiana, or he was planning to take part in a war over Mexico between the United States and the Empire of Spain, or according to certain confidants and almost all of his enemies, he was plotting to seize the city of New Orleans and form his own western empire by inducing the newly acquired Louisiana territories (and perhaps even some of the western states) to secede from the union. This plot came to be known to history as the Burr Conspiracy, and if Burr had not been betrayed by one of his co-conspirators who was secretly a Spanish spy, he might very well have succeeded in one or even all of these goals.
  
  Stewart’s history is full of excitement and intrigue from beginning to end, almost like a heist movie or thriller novel. By focusing on telling the whole story of the conspiracy from beginning to end, Stewart lays out the schemes of the disgraced Vice President Aaron Burr, as well as the Spanish spy and top-ranking American army officer James Wilkinson, the naïve Irish immigrants Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett, and a certain infamous general from Kentucky who later became President of the United States. An ensemble of other co-conspirators and would-be adventurers fill his pages, along with Burr’s enemies like Presidents Jefferson and Madison, the partisans of the late Alexander Hamilton, and eventually even Burr’s traitorous former ally Wilkinson, whom another historian—Freddy Jackson Turner—once called “the most consummate artist in treason the nation has ever possessed.”
  
  The plot culminates in anticlimax as Wilkinson betrays Burr with the aid of both his employers in Spain and the gullible President Jefferson, who sees only the threat posed by Burr’s expeditionary force and fails to discern Wilkinson’s foreign allegiance. Wilkinson himself seizes control of New Orleans and, with Jefferson’s cooperation, abrogates the rights of American citizens in that city: he arbitrarily jailed suspected conspirators without warrants or evidence, illegally broke into the Post Office to tamper with private mail, and unconstitutionally suspended the right of habeas corpus. When lawyers and judges took legal action against him for violating the law and the Constitution, he threw them in jail too. Burr, the man whose ambitions supposedly justified Wilkinson’s actions, never even gathered enough men and weapons to form an army, and was arrested and tried before he could ever reach the city Wilkinson had seized to stop him.
  
  What ensues in Stewart’s account is a riveting legal drama surrounding the seminal court case of The United States vs. Aaron Burr. Burr’s accusers want to see him hanged for treason, but Chief Justice John Marshall presides over a trial in Virginia’s district court in which the Constitution’s strict limitation on treason accusations is fully enforced. Burr is accused of assembling an army to wage war against the United States on his friend Harman Blennerhassett’s island; the only problem is that Burr was not even present when the unlawful assembly convened there, nor were they adequately armed with the muskets needed to equip an army in the first place. Burr, acknowledged even by his late rival Hamilton as a gifted lawyer, defends himself alongside a motley crew of legal experts including the eccentric and hard-drinking Luther “Brandy-Bottle” Martin. In the end, Burr proves that the evidence against him does not meet the constitutional definition of treason and wins his acquittal. But Wilkinson, his betrayer, also gets away with his involvement in the scheme, and his own acts of espionage against the United States are not discovered until long after his death.
• 
  Marie Carmean

  Wonderfully researched! American Emperor goes into every detail of the years and events that preceded Aaron Burr's poorly conceived move toward taking New Orleans and attacking Mexico. It follows every moment of the plan's processes, which were complex and interesting. The cast of characters were fascinating. Then he moves into the aftermath with the trial and years that followed. At times I felt a bit overwhelmed by the enormity of the information being presented. But, Stewart could not have done a better job in detailing every aspect of this tragic time and especially in relating it to the Constitutional statement of what treason has to be for such an act to be prosecutable. The evidence mounts that Burr's intentions were to have the Western territories and states secede from the union with him as the new commander in chief, pulling in the entire Gulf Coast under his control, including Spanish Mexico. He wanted desperately for Jefferson to declare war on Mexico which would have made him seem like a hero, but his plans appear to have been mostly self-serving...a card-play for glory; the creation of a new country over which he would rule.
  
  That Burr was clever and intelligent there is no doubt. That he deceived a great many people about his intentions is also clear. Had New Orleans been under his ultimate control our new nation would have suffered terribly with the loss of one of our most strategic ports. Wilkinson, the other villain in this story, to me is almost the worse of the two men because he literally was colluding with foreign governments and convincing Burr he would support him militarily, while being an officer in our army. He had his own designs on glory, and later brought Burr down to save his own skin. That both men breached the Neutrality Act there is no doubt, and yet punishment was not inflicted. A part of our history that bears understanding during these fragile early years of our nation's sovereignty. Well worth the time to read! An important work.
• 
  Shawn

  Aaron Burr is a fascinating historical figure. A revolutionary war hero. He presages the modern politician. He very nearly beat Jefferson for the Presidency in 1800. In the infamous duel, the sitting vice-president kills Alexander Hamilton. Under two murder indictments, he finishes his term and presides over the senate, including the impeachment hearing of Judge Samuel Chase. If that’s not enough, he spends the next five years essentially trying to become emperor of Mexico and probably more. He narrowly avoids a conviction of treason and then spends another five years in Europe trying to get a European power to support his plans to take over Mexico (in between his many romantic dalliances). Finally, he returns to New York only to lose the only two people he probably cared about: his daughter and grandson. He lives until 80 in what had to be a lonely and disgraced life.
  
  Burr was charming and convivial, but also a power hungry, manipulator who most likely was conspiring to take over all of the North American continent and make himself an American Napoleon. Unlike Napoleon, though, there was no underlying political ideology motivating Burr. Burr’s motivation is best captured in the Hamilton musical:
  “I wanna be in the room where it happens.” Burr just wanted to be _the guy_. He wanted to be admired and loved, he wanted to be in charge.
  
  And he almost succeeded.
  
  The audiobook was performed well by Andrew Garman. It starts with the set-up for the Hamilton duel and takes you through the rest of Burr’s life. The author spends a lot of time and detail on Burr’s “western expedition” preparations and the subsequent treason trials. It provides a fascinating look at the leading lights of the founding era through Burr’s often unsympathetic eyes.
  
• 
  Stefanie Robinson

  Aaron Burr is most commonly known for killing Alexander Hamilton in a duel, but there was a bit more to him. He happened to be the running mate of Thomas Jefferson for the presidency, and during that time, he challenged him. He had some wild ideas about the state of the nation and what was happening in the immediate future. He had some shady dealings with some equally shady characters, and I had a great time learning about that. I didn't realize he was into so many things. I think that Thomas Jefferson should have charged him with treason much sooner than he did, certainly.
  
  You would imagine that this book would be a dry historical nonfiction about a couple of Revolutionary men, but that would be wrong. Aaron Burr and Thomas Jefferson's relationship had some depth, to say the least. Even though I knew about Burr and Alexander Hamilton's issues, I didn't realize he was such a distasteful character all around. I think I would have hated him in real life. His personality just seems so distasteful to me. This book was well researched, and I think the author did a great job of looking at Burr in his complete person. Often, we like to look at American history in the best possible light, especially those in the Revolutionary era, without taking notice of shenanagins and poor relationships that they were in. This was certainly a different time we are living in now, and it is very neat to compare the differences. I liked this book a lot more than I was expecting to.
• 
  Porter Broyles

  1. How well written is it?
  
  This is definitely a readable book. I don't think I'd give it any awards, but it wasn't a complex book.
  
  2. How interesting is the subject?
  
  Aaron Burr---the Vice President who killed a man who was destined to become president in a duel? I wanted to learn more about the man. I mean, he was one of the founding fathers who rose to prominence in 1800 to the point that he almost became president? I wanted to learn more about the man.
  
  3. Does the book offer novel insight into the subject or is it just regurgitating already known facts?
  
  First, I was initially disappointed. I picked up the book assuming that it was a biography on Burr. I was wrong. The book have a very short biography and almost immediately jumps to his duel with Hamilton. It doesn't talk about Burr's involvement in the American Revolution, or long standing rivalry with Hamilton, or how he forced the House of Representative to decide who would become president/V.P.
  
  The book focuses on Burr's treasonous activities involving secession of the western territories and possible invasion of Mexico---and the treason case that follows.
  
  Despite my initial disappointment, I enjoyed the book. I wish there had been more background on Burr, but that is my problem not the books.
• 
  AttackGirl

  I cannot stand Franklin and now perhaps we should credit BURR with behavior of the CIA and perhaps his letters are why the brothers were schooled as they were. I would like to know of any associations made to link the family to BURR or perhaps someone who had his letters or knew the inside story of his planning.
  
  I do think about this and have been for about 10 or so years what does it take to TAKE OVER a Nation it’s definitely not war but more so the inside working of program and human manipulation.
  
  Even now in the US, who set up the guillotine on the Capitol Lawn and yet we hear nothing of it. Why didn’t Trump clean out the whole Government and put in Republican minded political appointees? Or clean out the FBI once he knew the leadership was taking him down and the extent of their planning….
  
  Have you ever seen a lawsuit be ruled on or be settled so quickly and note he did not sue the owners of the voting machines and ask yourself why….
  
  What machines are used to take over other nations and do leadership changes and really who manages it all to decide who will be the next face of anything…
  
  Have you ever read the Protocols?
• 
  Tom

  In no particular order . . .
  - First I thoroughly enjoyed this book
  - The author stuck to the timeline without resorting to flash-forwards and flash-backs (which seems to be trending these days. So much more enjoyable.
  - My favorite quote "The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind." - Thomas Jefferson
  - For the first time I have an understanding of what led up to the duel, the outcome of the duel and exactly what Burr was thinking (if in fact he was thinking), about doing in the south and southwest.
  - Strange that Jefferson was portrayed so negatively but after all my reading I'm nearing a similar opinion. A great writer, thinker etc. but poor leader.
  - Fascinating account of how John Marshall "acquitted Burr"
  - Also enjoyable were the almost "postscript" accounts of all the characters. Talk about resiliency.
• 
  Montse

  A thorough book about our emerging nation, our regional discontents, politics, and the path of Aaron Burr. FYI - a link for a well-written review of this book.
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
  
• 
  Chaim Shapiro

  Stewart does a great job providing the story behind Burr's Western Expedition.
  
  The book is well written, and it is an entertaining read.
  
  Unlike some of his other history books, Stewart ALMOST completely stays out of modern politics in this account.
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  Suzanne Penna

  The book is thick with intricate descriptions which paint a clear picture of what motivated Aaron Burr. After reading 1776 and seeing Hamilton, it really helps to bring forward the personality of Burr.
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  Alex Stephenson

  First off: not a biography, rather a portrait of three years in the life of Aaron Burr - 1804-1807, specifically. But what a tumultuous three years those were, and this book does a very good job of describing them without overly praising or vilifying Burr, the black sheep of the Founding Fathers.
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  Sheryl

  Really insightful on a person that I only knew one thing about. Slow at times, but necessary to show all of the thought processes he did to try to create his own empire. Thankfully he failed.