ePub Race; Ethnicity; and Sexuality: Intimate Intersections; Forbidden Frontiers by Joane Nagel in History

Description

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.