James E. Lewis, Jr.: Making Sense of the Burr Conspiracy

Please join the Clements Library as we celebrate the release of The Burr Conspiracy: Uncovering an Early American Crisis, by James E. Lewis, Jr. A professor of History at Kalamazoo College, Lewis examines how rumors and reports of Aaron Burr's activities in the trans-Appalachian West in 1805 and 1806 produced a sense of crisis that was broadly held across the new nation. He discusses the various political and cultural forces that shaped how men and women at the time turned vague and often conflicting accounts into enough certainty to act.