Founding Brothers Lesson Plan

What are Ellis's goals in this chapter? How does he organize the chapter to achieve them?

Students should identify that Ellis begins with the smallest possible version of the story, a paragraph-long account of the duel, and gradually expands his focus to include the Hamilton-Burr correspondence leading up to the duel, their longer history as political adversaries, and eventually the duel as representing a political and ethical struggle over the fate of the newly-formed republic. Ellis's goals here could be to tie one of the most narratively interesting episodes in the country's founding to larger political dynamics; to portray historical figures as complex characters whose...