"So, there you have it: Hamilton safely buried and assuming legendary proportions as a martyr; Burr slipping out of town, eventually headed toward bizarre adventures in the American West, but already consigned to political oblivion. This seems the most appropriate closing scene in our attempted recovery of 'The Duel' as a famous and eminently visual story.

The missing ingredient in the story, of course, is the four- or five-second interval when the shots were actually fired." Chapter 1, pg. 26.

"No one in the revolutionary generation needed to be reminded who Catalan was. He was the talented but malevolent destroyer of republican government. If each member of the revolutionary generation harbored secret thoughts about being the modern incarnation of a classical Greek or roman hero — Washington was Cato or Cincinnatus, Adams was Solon or Cicero — no one aspired to be Catalan.

"Did Burr fit the role?" Chapter 1, pgs...