Rivals Unto Death: Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr [Hardcover]

From the bestselling author ofThe Greatest Stories Never Toldseries, the epic history of Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr's illustrious and eccentric political careers and their fateful rivalry.

The famous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr was the culmination of a story three decades in the making.Rivals unto Deathvividly traces their rivalry back to the earliest days of the American Revolution, when Hamilton and Burr--both brilliant, restless, and barely twenty years old--elbowed their way onto the staff of General George Washington. The fast-moving account traces their intricate tug-of war, uncovering surprising details that led to their deadly encounter through battlefields, courtrooms, bedrooms, and the wildest presidential election in history, counting down the years to their fateful rendezvous on the dueling ground.

This is politics made personal: shrill accusations, bruising collisions, and a parade of flesh and blood founders struggling--and often failing--to keep their tempers and jealousies in check. Smoldering in the background was a fundamental political divide that threatened to tear the new nation in two, and still persists to this day.

The Burr and Hamilton that leap out of these pages are passionate, engaging, and utterly human characters inextricably linked together asRivals unto Death.Rick Beyer is the best-selling author of theGreatest Stories Never Toldseries as well as the co-author with Elizabeth Sayles ofThe Ghost Army of World War II. He has also produced history documentaries for PBS, The History Channel, A&E, National Geographic, and the Smithsonian, among other television networks. They were the best of enemies, two stalwart men of the national stage whose differences--personal and political--seemed to capture larger conflicts churning within our young republic. In this fascinating dual biography, Rick Beyer brings these two towering figures to vivid life on thl3Y