Rivals Unto Death : Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr

Rick Beyer

ISBN 10: 0316504971 / ISBN 13: 9780316504973

Published by Hachette Book Group USA Feb 2017, 2017

About this Item

Neuware - The day was hot and sticky. The man in the rowboat was an impetuous hothead. His row across the choppy Hudson that morning led to a confrontation that has burned bright in the American mind for more than two hundred years.When the most notorious duel in American history took place, Alexander Hamilton was 49, a former Treasury Secretary whose meteoric political rise had flamed out in the wake of a humiliating sex scandal. Vice President Aaron Burr, was just a year younger than Hamilton, at the top of a meteoric rise of his own in the nation's fledgling government. Though the duel is famous, the fascinating three-decade dance that led to it is far less known. Rivals Unto Death will explore that dance, vividly sketching the key episodes that led to its violent end. It will start with the preliminaries of that fateful morning in 1804, then retrace the rivalry back to the earliest days of the American Revolution, when both men, brilliant, restless, and barely twenty years old, elbowed their way onto the staff of General George Washington. It will follow them as they launch their competitive legal practices in New York City, the new country's bustling commercial center of thirty thousand people, through the insanity of the election of 1800, when Hamilton threw his support behind Thomas Jefferson in an effort to knock Burr out of the running for president, and through countless surprising moments in their past, such as when Burr saved Hamilton from capture and possible death at the hands of the British.Sharply realized and compellingly written, Rivals Unto Death transports readers to the era of Hamilton and Burr and explores how what was once considered the New World ended up being too small for the both of them.

Seller Inventory # 9780316504973

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rivals Unto Death : Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr
• Publisher: Hachette Book Group USA Feb 2017
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316504971
• ISBN 13: 9780316504973
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 185W x 141H x 27D millimeters 185 millimeters width by 141 millimeters height by 27 millimeters depth
• Weight: 290 grams

About this title

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of The Greatest Stories Never Told series, the epic history of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr's illustrious and eccentric political careers and their fateful rivalry.

The famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr was the culmination of a story three decades in the making. Rivals unto Death vividly traces their rivalry back to the earliest days of the American Revolution, when Hamilton and Burr -- both brilliant, restless, and barely twenty years old -- elbowed their way onto the staff of General George Washington. The fast-moving account traces their intricate tug-of war, uncovering surprising details that led to their deadly encounter through battlefields, courtrooms, bedrooms, and the wildest presidential election in history, counting down the years to their fateful rendezvous on the dueling ground.

This is politics made personal: shrill accusations, bruising collisions, and a parade of flesh and blood founders struggling--and often failing--to keep their tempers and jealousies in check. Smoldering in the background was a fundamental political divide that threatened to tear the new nation in two, and still persists to this day.

The Burr and Hamilton that leap out of these pages are passionate, engaging, and utterly human characters inextricably linked together as Rivals unto Death.

About the Author

Rick Beyer is the bestselling author of the Greatest Stories Never Told series as well as the co-author with Elizabeth Sayles of The Ghost Army of World War II. He has also produced history documentaries for PBS, The History Channel, A&E, National Geographic, and the Smithsonian, among other television networks.