The books in this section are usually hardcover and in decent shape, though we'll sometimes offer hard-to-find books in lesser condition at a reduced price. Though we often put images of the book with their original dust jackets, the copies here won't always (or even often) have them. If that is important to you, please call ahead or say so in the order comments!
Benjamin Brown, an English runaway, arrives in New York during the exciting Federalist era. It is a world in which he must struggle to survive, but it is also a world in which intelligence and hard work mean far more than any predetermined place in society, Ben comes to know the city from Columbia College to the dark edges of its underworld. He absorbs the social and political philosophy of young aristocrats such as Philip Hamilton and Theodosia Burr—while his work as printer's devil on Mr. Greenleaf's Journal exposes him to the democratic principles and ideals that have endured to guide the United States today.
Forced at last by his brushes with the new country's turbulent political life to choose between the opposing Federalist and Jeffersonian points of view, Ben plays a vital role during the Glorious Conspiracy of the title—the all-important election of 1800, when the freedom and democracy gained by the Revolution and seemingly assured by the Constitution were very nearly lost again.
—from the book
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