The Great American Rascal: The Turbulent Life of Aaron Burr

 

The Great American Rascal: The Turbulent Life of Aaron Burr by Noel B. Gerson

My guess is that because of the overwhelming popularity of the musical “Hamilton”, most people probably recognize the name of Aaron Burr as the man who killed Alexander Hamilton during a duel. I haven’t seen the musical, so I don’t know how prominent a figure Burr is featured, but after reading this book I came away with the overwhelming feeling that whereas Alexander Hamilton might have warranted a musical about his life, Aaron Burr deserves a movie. A mini-series preferably.  There’s an awful lot of life this man lived that was quite interesting; albeit not always easy. Aaron Burr was not a good man.

Like all tragic figures though, if we look hard enough, we can find enough about the individual to pity them.  I found myself pitying this man in a great way. Although if I were completely honest, I would have preferred a much colder ending to his crooked life.

Aaron Burr was possibly the first “truly evil” politician who ever held a high office in the United States of America.  We would be naïve to believe that most people who hold such a high office are deeply altruistic in their desires. It’s all about power. Aaron Burr was no different. We read about his young life and discover he was highly intelligent and manages to not only be a very successful lawyer, but a fairly respected hero during the Revolutionary War. He had quite the brain and seems to find success with whatever he touches. If only he would have used his gifts for good.

After narrowly missing out as becoming the third U.S. President, we sense a bitterness in the man who isn’t used to failure.  He has a lot of enemies and manages to kill Alexander Hamilton after being “insulted” by him.  This is only the beginning of Burr’s problems and his story becomes much more interesting after this event, if not altogether tragic.

We find him essentially trying to overthrow the young U.S. government and appoint himself dictator of a new regime.  The details aren’t worth going into here, but what’s sad is that Burr always manages to stay one step ahead of his pursuers and eventually fleeing to England, Scotland, France, and few other countries.  It seems no one likes him there either. His reputation seems to follow him.

The times when we feel the most sympathy for him is when we see that he loves and dotes on his wife very lovingly, and when she dies young, his affection shifts to his only child, a daughter who reminds him an awful lot of his deceased bride. We read about a lot of his correspondence to her when he’s overseas and one gets the impression that she’s the only thing he truly cares about rather than the ruthless pursuit of money and power.  Speaking of money, he has a lot of it throughout his life, yet manages to squander much of his wealth as soon as he accumulates (and re-accumulates) it.  We read an awful lot about him living in squalor while starving at times.

This book was a “Kindle Unlimited” deal yet don’t think that such a product is somehow inferior than a hardcover on any NYT best seller list.  I found this volume to be incredibly interesting and never overburdened with worthless detail. Each chapter is about 10 pages which is really a quite nice feature.  It’s very easy to sit down and digest a chapter or two in a brief sitting.  It’s a rather quick read in terms of biographies of famous individuals go, but there’s an awful lot of events in Aaron Burr’s life that make the experience very rich. 

It’s also a tad refreshing to see that the country of the United States has had to endure tyrants in power before and managed to endure.  Had things gone slightly awry, it’s easy to see how our young country could have very easily had a much shorter life.  You have to conclude, though, that calmer heads do in fact prevail; at least most of the time.

This was a very enjoyable informative read, and if one has Kindle Unlimited access, this is a great way to learn and be entertained free of charge.