A Magnificent Catastrophe by Edward J Larson Jd Phd

A Magnificent Catastrophe by Edward J Larson Jd Phd

CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

They could write like angels and scheme like demons. So begins Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Larson's masterful account of the wild ride that was the 1800 presidential election--an election so convulsive and so momentous to the future of American democracy that Thomas Jefferson would later dub it America's second revolution.

This was America's first true presidential campaign, giving birth to our two-party system and indelibly etching the lines of partisanship that have so profoundly shaped American politics ever since. The contest featured two of our most beloved Founding Fathers, once warm friends, facing off as the heads of their two still-forming parties--the hot-tempered but sharp-minded John Adams, and the eloquent yet enigmatic Thomas Jefferson--flanked by the brilliant tacticians Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, who later settled their own differences in a duel.

The country was descending into turmoil, reeling from the terrors of the French Revolution, and on the brink of war with France. Blistering accusations flew as our young nation was torn apart along party lines: Adams and his elitist Federalists would squelch liberty and impose a British-style monarchy; Jefferson and his radically democratizing Republicans would throw the country into chaos and debase the role of religion in American life. The stakes could not have been higher.

As the competition heated up, other founders joined the fray--James Madison, John Jay, James Monroe, Gouverneur Morris, George Clinton, John Marshall, Horatio Gates, and even George Washington--some of them emerging from retirement to respond to the political crisis gripping the nation and threatening its future.

Drawing on unprecedented, meticulous research of the day-to-day unfolding drama, from diaries and letters of the principal players as well as accounts in the fast-evolving partisan press, Larson vividly re-creates the mounting tension as one state after another voted and the press had the lead passing back and forth. The outcome remained shrouded in doubt long after the voting ended, and as Inauguration Day approached, Congress met in closed session to resolve the crisis. In its first great electoral challenge, our fragile experiment in constitutional democracy hung in the balance.

A Magnificent Catastrophe is history writing at its evocative best: the riveting story of the last great contest of the founding period.

Edward J. Larson is the author of seven books, including Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Ongoing Struggle Over Science and Religion, which won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 1998. Darwinism: A Fascinating History of a Scientific Idea, Evolution's Workshop, God and Science on the Galapagos Islands, and Trial and Error: The American Debate Over Creation and Evolution are among his other works. Larson has also published over a hundred essays, the most of which take a historical approach to law, science, or politics, and have appeared in publications such as The Atlantic, Nature, Scientific American, The Nation, The Wilson Quarterly, and the Virginia Law Review. He is a history and law professor at Pepperdine University and splits his time between Georgia and California.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780743293167
ISBN 10	0743293169
Title	A Magnificent Catastrophe
Author	Edward J Larson Jd Phd
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Other book format
Publisher	Simon & Schuster
Year published	2007-09-18
Number of pages	320
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.