The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr

From the two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, bestselling historian, and author of Our First Civil War--a fascinating portrait of one of the most compelling politicians in American history--a Revolutionary War hero, vice president of the United States, and the man who killed Alexander Hamilton.

But as H. W. Brands demonstrates in this biography, Burr was a man before his time--a proponent of equality between the sexes well over a century before women were able to vote in the US. Through Burr's extensive, witty correspondence with his daughter Theodosia, Brands traces the arc of a scandalous political career and the early years of American politics. The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr not only dramatizes through their words his eventful life, it also tells a touching story of a father's love for his exceptional daughter, which endured through public shame, bankruptcy, and exile, and outlasted even Theodosia's tragic disappearance at sea.