Scandalmonger

You are in the years surrounding 1800 in VERY political early Philadelphia, New York and Washington. Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemming, James Monroe, Meriwether Lewis, Aaron Burr, James Madison and more of the men and women you have only heard or read of before are suddenly alive and struggling for their new country, their now old revolutionary ideas, and sometimes just for themselves.

William Safire offers an historical novel about what we call checkout rippers, or scandal sheets, written by persons we still call Scandalmongers: Persons who make money selling SCANDAL. You think scandal and mongering it is new in the world?  Never.  Each page will feel like it's taken from today's Huffington Post, Daily Show, or Politico article.

After reading this book I came away with a new appreciation for how scandal may destroy one and elevate another.  And for how the best meaning people may cause the worst things to happen in the name of what they believe.

Scandalmongers is a book about the first decade of the 19th century in American politics. Deftly written. Exhaustively researched, as accurate as a novel can be to historical truth.

-Ken