Memoirs of Aaron Burr, Volume 1.

Aaron Burr was once the most dangerous man in America. Vice president, alleged conspirator, and the man who killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel that shook the young republic to its core. This memoir is his attempt to tell his side of the story. Volume One opens with Burr tracing his lineage back to Puritan ancestors, chronicling his orphan childhood after losing both parents by age two, and his restless youth marked by repeated escape attempts from his guardians. We follow him to Princeton, where he graduated in just two years, and into the Revolutionary War, where his courage on the battlefield earned him Washington\'s personal admiration before their relationship soured. What makes these memoirs irresistible is not their reliability (Burr was never one to let facts interfere with a good story) but their audacity. Here is a man universally reviled, writing from exile, still convinced of his own virtue, still polishing his legend. It is self-justification raised to art form, and it remains essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how the Founding Fathers saw themselves versus how history saw them.