Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character

Kennedy (whose career has included stints as director of the National Park Service and CFO of the Ford Foundation) provides a dense rehash of well-known facts about the converging careers of Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Far less accomplished than Thomas Fleming's Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America (Forecasts, Sept. 20), Kennedy's tome is hindered by overblown language and a surfeit of detail. He writes that he hopes to hasten Burr's ""return from the exile on that shadowy periphery to which Jefferson consigned him."" But Burr's is a tough reputation to resurrect. Since there's no memoir in his own hand arguing the justice of his actions, Kennedy relies instead on journals and (remarkably) letters to Burr's own daughter containing what Kennedy calls ""Burr's accountant's notations of sexual encounters for pay"" during his exile in Paris. Kennedy suggests Jefferson's charge of treason against Burr was politically motivated. Yet historians concur Burr fomented a genuine plot for insurrection in the West. Where, the reasonable reader asks, can we find middle ground between these opposing notions? If there is a middle ground, it is terrain for which Kennedy fails to draw a credible map. Illus. 40,000 first printing; BOMC and History Book Club alternate selections. (Nov.)