I rise on a point of personal privilege.  My government, in the form of the U.S. Department of Justice, has just brought a legal action that will make my life considerably worse.  It has sued five publishing houses and Apple under what we somewhat nostalgically still call the “antitrust” laws.  As an author of three…

Having just finished the terrific, deeply flawed The Beauty and the Sorrow by Peter Englund, about World War I, I find myself wondering if it is possible to write a sensible history of that massive, world-changing conflict.   I hope people keep trying to do so, because I want to try to understand it better, but…

It was the moment Aaron Burr had been working toward for two years.  In late December, 1806, he stood on the Illinois shore of the Ohio River, just below the mouth of the Cumberland River.   Gathered around him were the men who had volunteered to join his expedition to liberate the Spanish lands of Florida,…

In late December 1806, Aaron Burr was desperately trying breathe life into the Western expedition he had spent the previous twenty months organizing.  For several weeks, everything had been turning sour. In October, the U.S. Attorney in Kentucky tried to prosecute him for organizing an illegal private invasion of Mexico.  A grand jury in Frankfort…

He was a young fellow, with the mandatory four-days-growth beard.  I don’t get that many younger folks to my readings, so I was happy to seem him in the book-signing line after my talk about American Emperor at the National Archives earlier this month. Then he presented his soft-covered volume, which turned out to be…

When she began taping our interview at noon today, Mimi Geerges, who has a radio show on XM-Sirius and a bunch of local public radio stations (see below), described Aaron Burr as a “scoundrel.” Wait, I said.  He wasn’t really a scoundrel. Really?  She answered.  He was a traitor, wasn’t he? And we were off. …

This weekend marks the anniversary of the 1806 launch of Aaron Burr’s ill-fated Western expedition.  The former vice president had arranged for the construction of riverboats that could carry 1500 men down to New Orleans, Florida, Mexico, and beyond. The recruits mustered at Blennerhassett Island, on the Ohio River beyond Marietta, Ohio (across from the…

Like you, I was appalled to read about the congressional representatives — Republicans and Democrats alike — who have traded on the stock market on inside information gained through their public duties.  Peter Schweizer’s new book, Throw Them All Out, has stirred up this tempest.  The episode that disgusted me the most was when key…