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Article: Burr in the saddle.(Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr)(Book review)
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- July 30, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr, by Nancy Isenberg (Viking, 544 pp., $29.95)
HISTORIAN Nancy Isenberg's attempt, in this new book, to rehabilitate Aaron Burr brings to mind the fifth labor of Hercules: cleaning the Augean stables in a single day. So much filth has accumulated around him, over the ages, that clearing his name seems an impossible task. All the abuse flung at Burr by his political enemies--charges of sexual debauchery, overweening ambition, fiscal profligacy, and, ultimately, treason--still sticks to him like glue.
If previous historians have offered less than charitable interpretations of Burr's motives and actions, Isenberg is more ...