An executioner’s ax, a duel by the Hudson, an Apalachian gunfight, an NKVD assassin, a sniper’s bullet. Ever since Cain and Abel, feuds have had a powerful hold on the public imagination. Spanning five hundred years of political rivalry, spiritual conflicts, and ancestral animosity, Great Feuds in History puts the reader squarely in the middle of ten of history’s most significant struggles. These high stakes personal contests had a lasting impact on the societies around them and the generations that followed. They are stories of greed, ambition, jealousy, and fear. But they are also affairs of honor, courage, and political principle. Some, such as the battle royal between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, were intrigues largely played out among highborn aristocrats. Others, such as the brutal struggle between Joseph Stalin and Leon Trotsky, took place on the world stage in the midst of social revolution. Still others, such as the one between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, were bitter personal disputes linked to deeper issues of national policy. And still others, such as the rivalry between Robert F. Scott and Roald Amundsen, were non-violent contests of endurance and skill, ending with the charting of a new continent. Great Feuds in History is a thrilling narrative, in which the human drama takes center stage.