Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America

A rich brew of political intrigue that dwarfs even the most salacious political scandal today. . 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.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations xi; Acknowledgements xiii; A General Nurses His Wounds; The Quarrelsome Men of Gotham; The New Caesar's Long Shadow; The Temptations of a Vice President; Politicians in the Wilderness; A Wary Candidate Tests the Waters; From Migraine to Miracle; Resist, Resist, Resist the Demagogues; Does Impeachment Justify Secession?; Mudslingers Front and Center; From the Low Road to the Depths; A Distracted Dictator and an Etiquette - Mad President; A Ruined Politician Has a Midnight Visitor; Light in the Labyrinth; Honor's Deadly Ritual; Why Soldiers Why?; This is a Moral Wound, Doctor; Muffled Drums and Beckoning Destiny; Afterward; Notes; Index.

Review :
"A stunning panorama...masterfully concise...Duel does a scintillating job of restoring salient edges that decades of historical buffing have rounded off." "Fleming brings his novelistic flair to this portrait of power and politics in early America. History buffs will relish Duel." "Fleming takes one of the most electrifying stories involving our nation's Founding Fathers and tells it electrically." Praise for Duel: "Duel is thoroughly well written, at once fascinating and instructive. It's almost impossible not to love this book."