I suspect the Burr conspiracy is something that most students of early American history have a passing acquaintance with. I first came across a mention of it in a book about the regular U. S. Army prior to the Civil War. The Burr conspiracy, it said, while only obscurely understood, if it had succeeded would have fundamentally changed the United States as we know it today. It then went on to implicate the Army Chief of Staff in a similarly vague way as a likely traitor to the country.

That was before the ongoing Russia Trump hoax put the Burr conspiracy in the shade but even so it holds a solid second position on the list of American political scandals. I tucked that little nugget away in my memory and when I came across this book in Haslim's Bookstore in St. Petersburg, Florida I was sure I would buy it. Flipping it open the first thing I saw was a two page spread photo of a still undeciphered conspirators' message. At that point I had to buy the book.

The main problem with a book on the Burr conspiracy is that very little is definitely known about it and the reader may get stuck with a book that either gives an overly academic treatment of ancillary issues or the authorial equivalent of thespian hedge-eating. This book does neither and likely will stand as the definitive analysis for many decades to come, if not forever in my opinion. The author takes the few details we know certainly about the event and coaxes from them the only plausible narrative possible. Along the way we get a clearer picture of contemporary American society and its institutions than we are likely to get in a direct and turgid generalized study. ( )