Richard Buel, Jr. | The Huntington

Publications

America on the Brink: How the Political Struggle over the War of 1812 Almost Destroyed the Young Republic

Richard Buel, Jr. (Billington/Occidental Fellow, 1999-00)

Many people would be surprised to learn that the struggle between Thomas Jefferson's Republican Party and Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Party defined--and jeopardized--the political life of the early American republic. America on the Brink looks at why the Federalists, who worked so hard to consolidate the federal government before 1800, went to great lengths to subvert it after Jefferson's election.