Hero or villain, patriot or traitor, Aaron Burr was many things to many men and women. A leading hero of the Revolution who became Vice President of the United States, he then plotted against his country in an effort to carve an empire of his own in the West. In this incisive biography author William Wise unfolds the story of cross and double-cross. Burr, who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel, was called unprincipled, shrewd, conniving. Yet he was blissfully loyal to Thomas Jefferson – who repaid him by conspiring to break him politically. The exciting story of Aaron Burr is, in many respects, the story of the United States and its first decades.

From the dust jacket