Burr

Burr, by Gore Vidal, is a historical novel that challenges the traditional founding-fathers iconography of United States history, by means of a narrative that includes a fictional memoir, by Aaron Burr, in representing the people, politics, and events of the U.S. in the early nineteenth century. In the careers of his life, Aaron Burr was the third US vice president, an officer in the Continental Army, during the American War of Independence, a lawyer, and a Senator for New York State. In consequence to political and personal enmity, while he was Vice President of the U.S., Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel on 11 July 1804. After public life, he was embroiled in the Burr Plot, and was acquitted of treason against the U.S.; then, in Europe, he failed to obtain Napoleonic military aid to conquer Spanish Florida. In 1812, Aaron Burr returned to the U.S., and practiced law in New York City, until his death in 1836.