Jefferson
Architect of American Liberty
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- £12.99
Publisher Description
From an eminent scholar of the American South, the first full-scale biography of Thomas Jefferson since 1970
Not since Merrill Peterson's Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation has a scholar attempted to write a comprehensive biography of the most complex Founding Father. In Jefferson, John B. Boles plumbs every facet of Thomas Jefferson's life, all while situating him amid the sweeping upheaval of his times. We meet Jefferson the politician and political thinker -- as well as Jefferson the architect, scientist, bibliophile, paleontologist, musician, and gourmet. We witness him drafting of the Declaration of Independence, negotiating the Louisiana Purchase, and inventing a politics that emphasized the states over the federal government -- a political philosophy that shapes our national life to this day.
Boles offers new insight into Jefferson's actions and thinking on race. His Jefferson is not a hypocrite, but a tragic figure -- a man who could not hold simultaneously to his views on abolition, democracy, and patriarchal responsibility. Yet despite his flaws, Jefferson's ideas would outlive him and make him into nothing less than the architect of American liberty.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a narrative as majestic as its subject, Boles (University Builder), professor of history at Rice University, takes a fresh, nuanced look at one of the America's most enigmatic founding fathers. With scads of books already available about Jefferson, Boles's work distinguishes itself in two ways. First, it's a "full-scale" biography, covering all facets of Jefferson's life: politician, oenophile, father. The prose moves smoothly and efficiently among the various parts of Jefferson's life, lingering only long enough to get each particular story told. Boles judiciously selects events that highlight his subject's personality. For instance, when Jefferson stepped down as governor of Virginia in 1781, the state assembly launched an inquiry into how effectively he'd served in office. The charge cut him so deeply that he turned down the chance to negotiate the Paris Peace Treaty so he could defend himself. Second, Boles declined to apply 21st-century sensibilities to Jefferson's life: "Instead, we should try to understand the constraints legal, financial, personal, intellectual under which he lived." Boles, an accomplished scholar well versed in the source material, deftly paints a picture of the world as Jefferson knew it, taking care not to mix up understanding with excusing, especially with the Virginian's relationship with Sally Hemings. This is a gem of a biography. Illus.
