Burr, Hamilton, & Jefferson: A study in character :: essays research papers

This is a controversial word of honor that is well worth the read. The author comes at his subject from outside academe, albeit with speck slight credentials. Although he has authored nine obliges, has served as Director of the National Park proceeds and Director of the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of American History, and was once a White class correspondent for NBC, his approach remains outside the mainstream of history or journalism. To begin, it is refreshingly place-oriented and rich with detail of physical surroundings and personal relationships involving the nations founders. The work is less successful in terms of the context of time. Roger Kennedys study is not presented in strict chronological narrative, because it is a study in "character." Its analytical framework, however, is alike value-laden, sometimes obscuring the policy-making and social context of early nineteenth-century America. Kennedy sets up his straw hands to praise and destroy, which is an easy feat from the vantage point of twenty-first-century morality.The book is, nonetheless, intellectually honest (the author admits his biases upfront and in the appendix), provocative, and ultimately instructive. He blasts certain points of historical consensus and bias through the skillful use of two evidence and conjecture. He utilizes firsthand accounts of friends and associates, as well as rascals and enemies, to evince multidimensional impressions of Burr, Hamilton, Jefferson, Washington, and others. There are no flat images here. Kennedy uncovers motivations that drove these men to do great (and not-so-great) things, which is definitely not an easy feat, especially in a prosopographical study that links the lives of its main characters. When the smoke dears, Burr comes away(p) looking quite a bit better than reputation would entertain it Hamilton emerges from a mixed review about the same but Jefferson instanter looks decidedly worse--not at all the guy you think of smiling on that brand-new, shiny nickel.Burr and Hamilton were local rivals in New York politics. They had a sometimes close, but complex, relationship. When Hamilton played dirty politics (yet again) to keep Burr from comme il faut New Yorks governor, Burr uncharacteristically lost his self-control, called Hamilton out for a duel, and mutable him dead in 1804. It is quite possible that Hamilton actually committed suicide, employ Burr as the instrument. Afterwards, Burr took to referring to "my friend Hamilton, whom I shot." At whatever rate, Burr was vilified nationally for his deed, and Hamilton was less-than-deservedly martyred. Burr and Jefferson, on the other hand, were national political rivals.