1876, A Novel

The third volume of Gore Vidal's series of historical novels aimed at demythologizing the American past, 1876 explores the political scandals of the Grant administration and the intrigues of that year's presidential election. Charles Schermerhorn Schuyler, Aaron Burr's unacknowledged son, returns to America after his self-imposed exile, hoping to arrange a marriage for his daughter Emma, but the two soon find themselves at the centers of American social and political power at a time when the fading ideals of the young republic were being replaced by the excitement of empire.