War of Two

September 28, 2015
Journalist and novelist Sedgwick (In My Blood) looks back on one of America’s earliest scandals: the duel between Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first secretary of the treasury, and Aaron Burr, the sitting vice president. The standoff stemmed from Hamilton calling Burr dangerous, but it was fueled by the interaction of two men for whom “relative standing was everything.” Hamilton, who had risen from illegitimacy and poverty to great power, possessed “a protean ability not just to make enemies but to create them,” and his influence waned accordingly. The nation’s rising star was Aaron Burr, whose political career began as “a testament to his high standing as a lawyer and to his elite background.” Sedgwick perceptively suggests that Burr’s skill at influencing public opinion epitomized for the emerging Republicans what Hamilton’s preference for elite governance did for the Federalists: competing versions of democracy. Never gaining Thomas Jefferson’s trust even as his vice president, Burr sought a power base in New York—where Hamilton had returned after leaving the government. Both men felt unacceptably diminished; each focused on the other as cause and symbol of his own relative decline. Sedgwick shows that while the duel was not inevitable, the pair’s final encounter was predictable. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House.

September 1, 2015
A parallel biography of two prominent figures from the Federalist era whose lives came into catastrophic collision on a dueling ground. Alexander Hamilton had a dazzling career as a young man. Chief aide to George Washington during the American Revolution and author of most of the Federalist Papers, as the first secretary of the treasury, he performed the miracle of putting the new nation's finances on a sound footing. Aaron Burr, a lawyer of prominence and brilliance equal to Hamilton's, engaged in politics to advance his own interests rather than any cause. He came within a single electoral vote of being elected president in Thomas Jefferson's place in 1800, gaining the vice presidency and Jefferson's enmity instead. Sedgwick (In My Blood: Six Generations of Madness and Desire in an American Family, 2007, etc.) presents an emotional and psychological biography of the pair, partially inspired by Gore Vidal's satirical novel Burr (1973). In crisp, lively prose, the author presents evenhanded and insightful profiles of two highly intelligent, driven men with substantial flaws and very different characters: the hyperactive Hamilton, of volcanic output and intense devotion to the Federalist cause, the brooding and libidinous Burr, communicating in code, both attached to the contemporary lethal cult of honor. Sedgwick strives to present this as something of a Greek drama in which his characters gradually swirl closer together, increasing in hostility until their duel appears almost inevitable. The strategy is not entirely successful. Burr and Hamilton cooperated occasionally and didn't come into conflict with each other often or sharply enough to warrant the characterization as archrivals. By the time of their duel, they were both washed up, in severe financial distress, and with no political prospects. It almost seems as though they fought because they no longer had anything better to do. An overly detailed but entertainingly irreverent account of two consequential men from the dawn of the American republic.

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October 15, 2015
A synthesis of the many works written about two famous American figures, Hamilton and Burr, Sedgwick's book strives to reveal to general history readers their foibles and feelings; Gore Vidal's Burr (1973), Sedgwick comments, was his model. As he describes their childhoods (Hamilton's, rough on the Caribbean island of Nevis; Burr's, relatively comfortable in New Jersey), Sedgwick excerpts revealing passages from their letters. Hamilton expressed his feelings exuberantly and openly, as he did his political principles. Burr's letters, by contrast, are guarded in language and often encoded. The men were as one, however, in amorous pursuit of women, though with typically contrasting results: Burr's affairs remained discreet, while Hamilton's adultery became a spectacular public scandal in the 1790s. Another passion whose origin Sedgwick attempts to find is Burr's hatred of Hamilton. It clearly predated the fatal 1804 duel; whether his animus extended back to the Revolutionary War, when Hamilton was Washington's favorite and Burr was not, or smoldered from political defeats at Hamilton's hands, it had an arc of intensification that Sedgwick illustrates well. A fine rendition of a storied episode in American history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)