Offers a portrait of the life of a remarkable American woman, profiling the seminal role played by Dolley Madison amid the turbulent and complex political, social, and cultural world of the early nineteenth century.

Villain of the revolution or victim of history? Generations have been told that Aaron Burr was a betrayer of Alexander Hamilton, of his country, of those who had nobler ideas. But in this biography, Nancy Isenberg resurrects the Burr that time forgot: a loyal patriot, brilliant lawyer, and progressive Enlightenment intellectual who had the tremendous misfortune to make powerful enemies whose efforts ultimately dammed his legacy. Exposing the gritty...

"John and Abigail Adams sired the first dynasty to shape American politics, but they would not witness their family's calamitous fall from grace. When President John Quincy Adams died in 1848, so began the slow death of the family's political legacy -- a decline that mirrored the fall of the Republican Party. The Adamses would abandon their forefather's enlightened republicanism, yielding to the temptation of oligarchy and personal spoils. In Heirs...