Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign
    A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign
    A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign
    Audiobook (abridged)6 hours

    A Magnificent Catastrophe: The Tumultuous Election of 1800, America's First Presidential Campaign

    Written by Edward J. Larson

    Narrated by John Dossett

    4/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title

    "They could write like angels and scheme like demons." So begins Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward Larson's masterful account of the wild ride that was the 1800 presidential election—an election so convulsive and so momentous to the future of American democracy that Thomas Jefferson would later dub it "America's second revolution."

    This was America's first true presidential campaign, giving birth to our two-party system and indelibly etching the lines of partisanship that have so profoundly shaped American politics ever since. The contest featured two of our most beloved Founding Fathers, once warm friends, facing off as the heads of their two still-forming parties—the hot-tempered but sharp-minded John Adams, and the eloquent yet enigmatic Thomas Jefferson—flanked by the brilliant tacticians Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, who later settled their own differences in a duel.

    The country was descending into turmoil, reeling from the terrors of the French Revolution, and on the brink of war with France. Blistering accusations flew as our young nation was torn apart along party lines: Adams and his elitist Federalists would squelch liberty and impose a British-style monarchy; Jefferson and his radically democratizing Republicans would throw the country into chaos and debase the role of religion in American life. The stakes could not have been higher.

    As the competition heated up, other founders joined the fray—James Madison, John Jay, James Monroe, Gouverneur Morris, George Clinton, John Marshall, Horatio Gates, and even George Washington—some of them emerging from retirement to respond to the political crisis gripping the nation and threatening its future.

    Drawing on unprecedented, meticulous research of the day-to-day unfolding drama, from diaries and letters of the principal players as well as accounts in the fast-evolving partisan press, Larson vividly re-creates the mounting tension as one state after another voted and the press had the lead passing back and forth. The outcome remained shrouded in doubt long after the voting ended, and as Inauguration Day approached, Congress met in closed session to resolve the crisis. In its first great electoral challenge, our fragile experiment in constitutional democracy hung in the balance.

    A Magnificent Catastrophe is history writing at its evocative best: the riveting story of the last great contest of the founding period.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateSep 18, 2007
    ISBN9780743569057

    More audiobooks from Edward J. Larson

    Related to A Magnificent Catastrophe

    Related audiobooks

    United States History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Tragedy of Edmund Morris

      May 28, 2019

      The Tragedy of Edmund Morris
      5 min read

    • Article

      'Heirs Of The Founders' Profiles The 'Second Generation' Of Great American Leaders

      Nov 13, 2018

      In his latest historical spellbinder, bestselling author and scholar H.W. Brands profiles Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and John Calhoun, as well as the decades leading up to the Civil War.

      3 min read

    • Article

      'Friends Divided' Explores the Remarkable, Stormy Friendship of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams

      Nov 5, 2017

      Revolutionary-era historian Gordon S. Wood, in his latest book on the period, makes clear just how fragile the American experiment had become once George Washington retired to Mount Vernon.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Explosive Election

      Nov 17, 2020

      Explosive Election
      12 min read

    • Article

      THE MEN WHO MADE America

      Feb 28, 2020

      THE MEN WHO MADE America
      10 min read

    • Article

      A Nation of Enemies

      Feb 1, 2018

      A Nation of Enemies
      19 min read

    • Article

      ’twas Ever Thus

      Sep 25, 2018

      ’twas Ever Thus
      4 min read

    • Article

      Getting Schooled

      Mar 9, 2021

      Getting Schooled
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Son Of The Revolution

      Oct 1, 2022

      A Son Of The Revolution
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Klansman’s Horrific Reign

      Aug 15, 2023

      A Klansman’s Horrific Reign
      12 min read

    • Article

      Prestige Without Power

      Dec 14, 2021

      Prestige Without Power
      4 min read

    • Article

      America Was Built With Pamphlets, Not Muskets

      May 26, 2021

      In his compelling new book, “The Words That Made Us," Akhil Reed Amar traces how early Americans wrote – and rewrote – the country into existence.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Carnal Crimes

      Sep 24, 2019

      Carnal Crimes
      4 min read

    • Article

      The 1776 Project

      Oct 13, 2022

      The 1776 Project
      12 min read

    • Article

      Aaron Burr in Exile

      Jun 3, 2019

      IN JUNE 1808, AS HE LEFT North America for the one and only time in his life, Aaron Burr recorded the briefest of notes for his adored daughter, Theodosia. “Fair winds,” the founding father and former vice president wrote before clambering aboard a p

      16 min read

    • Article

      Life of Service

      Oct 1, 2022

      Even for a person of John Quincy Adams’s remarkable credentials, the practice of law was challenging. As a new lawyer in Boston, he found it difficult to earn a living from the profession. But his practice took off after a few years. By then, his exp

      4 min read

    • Article

      Odd Couple

      Sep 8, 2020

      Franklin and Washington: The Founding Partnership By Edward J. Larson William Morrow, 2020; $29.99 Dual biographies of Founding Fathers are in vogue. Here one by a veteran historian succeeds, even though Franklin and Washington, the only Revolutionar

      1 min read

    • Article

      Animal Tracks

      Jul 24, 2018

      Animal Tracks
      4 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Magnificent Catastrophe

    4/5

    42 ratings6 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      A nice short selection that gives more attention to the mechanics of the 1800 election than most histories provide; competently written and well read.
    • 4/5
      Fun recount of a major turning point in our country’s political journey.
    • 5/5
      Larson's book was published in 2007, but it's never seemed more timely.

      An election that bitterly divided the American people? That ended in a disputed fashion? One marked by bitter division among party elites that helped to undermine the candidates? One ticket composed of an experienced, ideologically consistent steady hand and a cipher seen as malleable, ambitious and unreliable? Vitriolic personal attacks? Nasty, sometimes factually iffy partisan news articles being shared around the country? Concern that candidates might be beholden to the interests of foreign countries? Predictions that the wrong outcome could destroy the nation? A campaign that seemed to go on forever, starting well more than a year before the final votes were cast in November?

      These are just a few of the parallels that leap to mind between what Larson dubs "America's first presidential campaign" and the bizarre 2016 campaign. The two elections aren't one-to-one comparisons, of course, but understanding history can help put the present into much-needed perspective.

      It's also striking how modern much of it FEELS, aside from the specific (and often superficial) parallels to a specific election. Despite the major cultural differences between 2016 and 1800, the candidates and political operatives behave recognizably. There are no polls, but newspapers at the time still engaged in political prognostication: predicting which states will go to which candidate (which map colors for Jefferson and Adams?) and how many electors. Operatives plot and scheme. Aaron Burr single-handedly invents political canvassing. Political junkies earnestly follow the latest developments. Pastors fulminate about the decline of America and godless candidates — who genuinely exist. There are debates about whether one side's maneuver is intended as a deliberate provocation and such whether it should be ignored or responded to in kind. People debate to what degree ends justify the means. Many other books about this time period, for good reason, highlight the different mindsets: the affairs of honor, the Roman Republican ideals, limited views on the role and capabilities of women and blacks. But this book does a good job of highlighting the similarities — human nature may change, but slowly.

      The book is well-researched and well-written on top of that, a breezy read I finished in two days. The author is generally sympathetic to Jefferson and Adams and not to Hamilton and Burr; Hamilton's faction of "High Federalists" in particular come as close to villains as any in Larson's book. (His decision to label them as "conservatives" seemed an odd, a-historic choice that at best only partially described the Hamiltonian party — but that's a rare quibble in an otherwise enjoyable book.) Certainly anyone lamenting how politics has degenerated from disinterested debates of yesteryear to today's partisan mudslinging should chapters like "Caucuses and Calumny."
    • 4/5
      If you believe that we have partisan elections today then you must read this book to see what was happenning at the beginning of this country. It is interesting to read that many issues involved in 1800 are still with us today. There was much more back room dealing than we have today. The partisanship is just as bad and the influence of money and power is similar. This book is a good look at the election and how the electoral college had its flaws and detractors even then.
    • 4/5
      This book is fascinating but...1) It is repetitive, probably since the author believes that the reader will have to be reminded of events and people which have already been described. Probably this is true in many cases, but I found the repetition a bit boring.2) It makes excessive use of cliches.3) It is depressing because it suggests very strongly that presidential elections then were like presidential elections now, driven more by perception than by actuality.However, it is also funny and teaches us that the political parties were just as hostile and likely to engage in personal attacks as they are today. The various churches were always eager to get into the political fray, just as they are today. And the way they went about it was just as ludicrous as it is today.
    • 3/5
      The first true presidential campaign took place in 1800 when President John Adams running for re-election was opposed by his former friend, and Vice President, Thomas Jefferson. The difficulty of the era was that many of the states still had not determined a permanent method of electing their electoral college members making for tremendous battles behind the scenes.The death of George Washington created additional problems for the Federalist party since many members at the tie were try to draft Washington back into public office.Many future occupants of the White House were drawn into the controversy. (James Madison, James Monroe, as well as Supreme Court Justices John Marshall and John Jay.)The book went to great detail explaining all the issues of the day and how the temporary governmental provisions for the election could result in different results.