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Book Review
Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character. By Roger G. Kennedy. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. xx, 476 pp. $30.00, ISBN 0-19-513055-3.)
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This book is a variation on the two-century-long debate among the historical partisans of either Alexander Hamilton or Thomas Jefferson, an ongoing controversy that reflected the acrimony between them during the early decades of our national history. By the 1990s, Jefferson's star was eclipsed by that of his rival, a situation reminiscent of the pro-Hamilton bias of historians during the 1950s. Over the past five years or so, one convincingly laudatory biography of Hamilton was published along with three books that replaced the Hamilton/Jefferson duality with a vindication of Aaron Burr's claim to fame, denied him for roughly two centuries. This shift is exemplified by the book under review. Roger G. Kennedy writes, "Everything we know about the character of Jefferson, the character of Hamilton, and the springs of their political action must be reexamined with Burr in mind." "It is high time," he insists, "to restore Aaron Burr to the Pantheon of the Founders." |
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