Fallen Founder, Nancy Isenberg
Fallen Founder, Nancy Isenberg
5 Rating(s)
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Fallen Founder
The Life of Aaron Burr

Author: Nancy Isenberg

Narrator: Scott Brick

Unabridged: 19 hr 50 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Published: 05/10/2007


Synopsis

A controversial challenge to the works of Ron Chernow and David McCullough

Lin-Manuel Miranda's play "Hamilton" has reignited interest in the founding fathers; and it features Aaron Burr among its vibrant cast of characters. 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.

About The Author

Nancy Isenberg is the author of two award-winning books, Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr and Sex and Citizenship in Antebellum America. She is the T. Harry Williams Professor of American History at LSU and writes regularly for Salon. Isenberg is the winner of the 2016 Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. She lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Charlottesville, Virginia.Scott Brick, an acclaimed voice artist, screenwriter, and actor, has performed on film, television, and radio. His stage appearances throughout the US include CyranoHamlet, and MacBeth. In the audio industry, Scott has won over 20 Earphones Awards, as well as the 2003 Audie Award in the Best Science Fiction category for Dune: The Butlerian Jihad. After recording nearly 250 books in five years, AudioFile Magazine named Scott “one of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy” and proclaimed him one of their Golden Voices. Brick’s range is unparalleled as he reads thrillers to narrative nonfiction, from biographies to science fiction with aplomb.


Reviews

Goodreads review by A.J.

Nancy Isenberg has a valid argument that Aaron Burr has been grossly misjudged by history. However, her restoration is tainted by her devotion to the man. Isenberg's Burr is a brilliant, progressive, selfless hero who deserves a spot on the pantheon of America's founders. His enemies were small, vai......more

Goodreads review by Tom

This was a very irritating biography. To her credit, Isenberg is less credulous than other Burr biographers and generally brings a healthy level of skepticism to some of the more fantastic claims made about him. Her discussions of Burr's marriage and parenting of the younger Theodosia are also good. I......more

Goodreads review by Carol

How do you write a boring book about Aaron Burr? How, how, how? The guy was a glamorous celebrity who got away with murder, as remorseless and slick as OJ Simpson. He was a boy hero destroyed by dark demons from within. Hello, Jim Morrison! He was a colorful con man who bumbled his way through the w......more


Quotes

"Full of insight and new research. An important and engaging account."--New York Times Book Review

"A sterling biography."--Boston Globe

"Isenberg offers justice to a maligned man."--Wall Street Journal

"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