The Birth of Empire

The book's brevity allows it to be read in a single pleasurable sitting ... Cornog has told an important story with a clarity and passion that are most welcomed * Reviews in American History, Vol.27 *
Cornog offers a palatable introduction to issues and events that are often presented in dry, convoluted accounts that hold little appeal for non-specialists * Reviews in American History, Vol.27 *
Cornog's ability to tell a vivid story is in itself an important contribution. By putting a human face on some rather complex ideological, political, and economic issues, the book offers not just a portrait of Clinton, but also a nice review of his times * Reviews in American History, Vol.27 *
Evan Cornog, in The Birth of Empire: DeWitt Clinton and the American Experience, 1769-1828, has rescued from historical obscurity one of the Early Republic's most influential public figures. In his quick-paced, engaging biography, Cornog convincingly returns Clinton - a New York politician, philanthropist, social reformer, and natural historian - to the centre stage that he occupied in his own era * Reviews in American History, Vol.27 *
Like the best biographers, Cornog developed a well-controlled affection for his subject and bequeaths it to the reader. * The Journal of American History, September 2000 *
Clinton remains one of his era's most intriguing and important politicians, and Cornog has depicted him with all his manifest charms and warts in this wonderfully revealing biography * The Historian *
Clinton deserves to be remembered, and this new biography does for him all that sound judgement and scholarship can./ ... it subjects Clinton to the most up-to-date scrutiny, and for that reason is of great value./ Hugh Brogan, TLS, 30/04/99.