Writing
Old Friends
Over the last few months, I’ve been able to spend time with a lot of old friends. It started over the summer, when about 35 of us from college, mutually stunned by turning 60 or the prospect of it, organized an informal reunion. There have been meals and overnights with college roommates, law school classmates,…
Read MoreBurr on Staten Island
As a dutiful son of Staten Island, I have been warmed to know that Aaron Burr died in September 1836 in a hotel in Port Richmond, on the island’s north shore. Port Richmond was a short sail across the Kill Van Kull from Elizabethtown, New Jersey, where Burr grew up. I like to think the old…
Read MoreAll Burr, All the Time
After sailing into the marketplace on Tuesday, American Emperor picked up a terrific review from David Holahan at the Christian Science Monitor, which featured a great opening line: “If you feel that our contemporary politics are off the rails, you should read David O. Stewart’s vivid account of 19th-century American machinations.” The review goes…
Read MoreLewis Lapham Asks About Burr
Bloomberg.com has just posted a podcast of the interview I did with Lewis Lapham about American Emperor. Mr. Lapham (it wasn’t long enough to get on a first-name basis) no longer edits Harper’s, which he did for many years, but does put out Lapham’s Quarterly, in addition to doing this series of podcast interviews for…
Read MoreCalling Mr. Madison!
The current financial crisis surrounding Greece has the European Union (EU) reliving an American nightmare of the 1780s. Then, the Articles of Confederation bound the thirteen states together with ties that were both loose and clumsy, and that failed. The parallels are plain: A group of states join together for mutual advantage. History and pride…
Read MoreBurr's Boats, Part II
When Aaron Burr left the office of vice president in March 1805, his future was clouded. President Jefferson had dropped him from the Republican ticket the year before, then Burr lost a race for governor of New York. Winning his famous duel with Alexander Hamilton, former Secretary of the Treasury, landed Burr under indictment for…
Read MoreNuremburg War Crimes Trials
John Q. Barrett is a law professor at St. John’s in New York and a scholar of Justice Robert Jackson (pictured below). He produces periodic e-mails about Justice Jackson that are often fascinating. His most recent message deals with Jackson’s exchange with Judge Charles Wyzanski over the legitimacy of the Nuremburg trials of Nazi leaders…
Read MoreTop 10 Government Showdowns
In honor of the debt-ceiling drama playing out here in Washington, Time Magazine has put together a list of Top 10 Government Showdowns in American history. I was initially delighted that the subjects of all three of my books made the list (indicated below). Then I started wondering about the quality of the list, and…
Read MoreBurr v. Hamilton: 207 years ago
The New York Times today commemorated the 207th anniversary of the Burr-Hamilton duel with an account of a journey to Weehawken that I took with the Times reporter, James Barron. (Purists will note that the true anniversary of the duel is tomorrow, July 11.) The journey, and Mr. Barron’s excellent account, reflect the extent to…
Read MoreThe Fourth and Thomas Jefferson
What better way to prepare for the Fourth of July, which celebrates Thomas Jefferson’s brilliant Declaration of Independence, than to reflect on the never-ending dispute over whether Jefferson fathered from one to four children borne by his slave, Sally Hemings. The accusation began with a scandal-mongering newsman in 1802. James Callender, a Scot, had been…
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