Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr
Nancy Isenberg, 2007
Penguin Group USA
560 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780143113713
Summary
With Fallen Founder, Nancy Isenberg plumbs rare and obscure sources to shed new light on everyone's favorite founding villain.
The Aaron Burr whom we meet through Isenberg's eye-opening biography is a feminist, an Enlightenment figure on par with Jefferson, a patriot, and—most importantly—a man with powerful enemies in an age of vitriolic political fighting.
Revealing the gritty reality of eighteenth-century America, Fallen Founder is the authoritative restoration of a figure who ran afoul of history and a much-needed antidote to the hagiography of the revolutionary era. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Nancy Isenberg is Professor of History at Louisiana State University and the author of books and articles on American politics and culture. Isenberg teaches courses on gender, film and legal history. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
Nancy Isenberg...in her fascinating new biography, Fallen Founder, argues that Burr has been misunderstood, and underappreciated, for two centuries.... Isenberg's call for a better, less fetishistic history of the founding fathers is eloquent and inspiring. And her study of Burr is full of insight and new research. It is an important and engaging account.
Jill Lepore - New York Times Book Review
Isenberg's meticulous biography reveals a gifted lawyer, politician and orator who championed civility in government and even feminist ideals, in a political climate that bears a marked resemblance to our own.
Washington Post
Does Burr belong in the pantheon of founding fathers? Or is he, as historians have asserted ever since he fatally shot Alexander Hamilton in a duel, a faux founder who happened to be in the right place at the right time? Was he really the enigmatic villain, the political schemer who lacked any moral core, the sexual pervert, the cherubic-faced slanderer so beloved of popular imagination? This striking new biography by Isenberg (Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America) argues that Burr was, indeed, the real thing, a founder "at the center of nation building" and a "capable leader in New York political circles." Interestingly, if controversially, Isenberg believes Burr was "the only founder to embrace feminism," the only one who "adhered to the ideal that reason should transcend party differences." Far from being an empty vessel, she says, Burr defended freedom of speech, wanted to expand suffrage and was a proponent of equal rights. Burr was not without his faults, she concludes, but then, none of the other founders was entirely angelic, either, and his actions must be viewed in the context of his political times. As this important book reminds us, America's founders behaved like ordinary human beings even when they were performing their extraordinary deeds. (Illustrations.)
Publishers Weekly
In this positive portrayal of the controversial Aaron Burr (1756-1836), Isenberg departs from all previous biographers, deploring their lack of basic research.... Making a strong case for revising received wisdom about Burr, Isenberg significantly contributes to the history of the early republic. —Gilbert Taylor
Booklist
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
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Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Fallen Founder:
1. How does Nancy Isenberg characterize Aaron Burr, his personality and character? How is her characterization different than what you previously believed about Burr?
2. What in this biography do you find to admire about Aaron Burr?
3. After reading Isenberg's account, was the aftermath of the 1800 election between Jefferson and Burr fair—particularly Jefferson's shutting Burr out of his cabinet and the subsequent choice of Madison as his future running mate?
4. What led up to the famous Hamilton-Burr duel? How much did you know previously about the episode? How does Isenberg challenge received wisdom regarding that fateful day in Weehawken, New Jersey? What still is left unknown?
5. "Everything we think we know about Aaron Burr is untrue," says Isenberg. What are some of those untruths? Why, according to the author, has Burr become one of history's favorite whipping boys? How culpable are historians in perpetrating Burr's scurrilous.
6. In what way does Isenberg see Aaron Burr as an early feminist? By the same token, in what way did Burr represent, through his actions and reputation, the era's masculine ideals?
7. What does Isenberg means when she insists that "the sexualized image of Burr was principally a function of political rivalry"?
8. In what way, according to Isenberg, was the nation "simply not as virtue-bound as we would like to imagine"?
9. Do you think Isenberg presents an accurate picture of Burr? Or does her desire to rehabilitate his reputation color her historical objectivity?
10. Have you read other accounts of Aaron Burr—books about him (Burr by Gore Vidal) or books in which he figures prominently? If so, how does Isenberg's depiction of Burr hold up? Is her account credible?
11. Has this book altered your view of Aaron Burr? What have you learned about the era's social and political culture? Have you come away supporting Nancy Isenberg's hypothesis—that Burr has been treated unfairly by historians and that his place in history deserves a rehabilitation?
12. Do you see any parallels between the political climate of Burr's era and our own?
(Questions issued by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)