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NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • The Seattle Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era. Philosophers think; politicians maneuver. Jefferson’s genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously. Such is the art of power.
Thomas Jefferson hated confrontation, and yet his understanding of power and of human nature enabled him to move men and to marshal ideas, to learn from his mistakes, and to prevail. Passionate about many things—women, his family, books, science, architecture, gardens, friends, Monticello, and Paris—Jefferson loved America most, and he strove over and over again, despite fierce opposition, to realize his vision: the creation, survival, and success of popular government in America. Jon Meacham lets us see Jefferson’s world as Jefferson himself saw it, and to appreciate how Jefferson found the means to endure and win in the face of rife partisan division, economic uncertainty, and external threat. Drawing on archives in the United States, England, and France, as well as unpublished Jefferson presidential papers, Meacham presents Jefferson as the most successful political leader of the early republic, and perhaps in all of American history.
The father of the ideal of individual liberty, of the Louisiana Purchase, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and of the settling of the West, Jefferson recognized that the genius of humanity—and the genius of the new nation—lay in the possibility of progress, of discovering the undiscovered and seeking the unknown. From the writing of the Declaration of Independence to elegant dinners in Paris and in the President’s House; from political maneuverings in the boardinghouses and legislative halls of Philadelphia and New York to the infant capital on the Potomac; from his complicated life at Monticello, his breathtaking house and plantation in Virginia, to the creation of the University of Virginia, Jefferson was central to the age. Here too is the personal Jefferson, a man of appetite, sensuality, and passion.
The Jefferson story resonates today not least because he led his nation through ferocious partisanship and cultural warfare amid economic change and external threats, and also because he embodies an eternal drama, the struggle of the leadership of a nation to achieve greatness in a difficult and confounding world.
Advance praise for Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
“Jon Meacham resolves the bundle of contradictions that was Thomas Jefferson by probing his love of progress and thirst for power. This is a thrilling and affecting portrait of our first philosopher-politician.”—Stacy Schiff
“This terrific book allows us to see the political genius of Thomas Jefferson better than we have ever seen it before. In these endlessly fascinating pages, Jefferson emerges with such vitality that it seems as if he might still be alive today.”—Doris Kearns Goodwin
This new biography by the Pulitzer Prize winning author of American Lion presents Thomas Jefferson as we have never seen him before. Historian Jon Meacham presents him not a democratic theoretician or a slave-owned hypocrite, but as a skillful pragmatist who helped the nation navigate through its first difficult years.
Jon Meacham is the author, most recently, of Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, a #1 New York Times bestseller that has been named one of the best books of the year by The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Entertainment Weekly, The Seattle Times, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Meacham received the Pulitzer Prize for American Lion, his bestselling 2008 biography of Andrew Jackson. He is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Franklin and Winston and American Gospel. Executive editor and executive vice president of Random House, Meacham is a contributing editor to Time magazine, a former editor of Newsweek, and has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post, among other publications. He is a regular contributor on Meet the Press, Morning Joe, and Charlie Rose. A Fellow of the Society of American Historians, Meacham serves on the boards of the New-York Historical Society, the Churchill Centre, and The McCallie School. He is a former trustee and regent of Sewanee: The University of the South, and has served on the vestries of St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue and Trinity Wall Street church in New York City. Born in Chattanooga in 1969, Meacham was educated at The McCallie School and at Sewanee: The University of the South, where he was salutatorian and Phi Beta Kappa. He began his career as a reporter at The Chattanooga Times. He and his wife live with their three children in Nashville and in Sewanee.
SteveJ54
Posted December 9, 2012
As a retired military man, I really enjoyed this book. Despite how people feel about Jefferson's personal life choices, he was without a doubt one of the most influential leaders in early America. This book offers both timeless wisdom, and fresh insight into what made him such an inspiring and effective leader.
19 out of 21 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 23, 2012
What interesting individuals to submit a review without even reading a word from the book. You base your opinions on "modern trends." Sad, seems like you are an educated individual, it is just too bad you are not educated indeed.
19 out of 46 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 16, 2012
The following is enough to keep me from buying this book:
"The author of 'All men are created equal' owned slaves and almost certainly kept one as his concubine, and kept their children in his house, still slaves."
The zeal to denigrate American historical icons is an unfortunate modern trend. The DNA evidence reagrding the paternity of Sally Hemings children was misrepresented deliberately by the fraud Joseph Ellis. Sad to see Meacham buy into it.
The DNA excluded any Jefferson male from being the father of three of her four children. So much for the notion that Jefferson kept his children(plural) as slaves. As for the remaining child the DNA evidence shows that a Jefferson male was the father. There were many Jefferson males present at Monticello. That makes thomas Jefferson's paternity a possibility, but a long ways from being a probability.
17 out of 151 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 10, 2012
Mr. Meacham is one of my favorite authors. I have read two other books by him and felt privileged to be able to read his work.
I have been reading about Our Founding Fathers for the last four years. I was waiting for this book to be published and was glad when
it became available. It is well researched, documented, and written. Mr. Jefferson does not come across as as someone above
humanity. He is all too human. He is complex, deeply academic ,and curious of life. I never knew that he spoke and wrote against
slavery. But he was a man of his time and even though he personally believed slavery to be evil, he was not willing to fight against that
ghastly institution. Jefferson owned over a hundred slaves and had six children by one, Sally Hemings.
I would respectfully disagree with those who take Mr Mecham to task for not editorializing against Jefferson's hypocrisy. Mr. Mecham
does not have to . The reader can certainly draw his or her own conclusion that Thomas Jefferson had feet of clay. concerning slavery
But this does not disqualify him from his truly remarkable words and work that helped to found our nation.
16 out of 18 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 9, 2012
I Also Recommend:
Wonderfully Written. I always enjoy books about our founding fathers!
15 out of 20 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 3, 2012
A must-read for info on an important founding father. Compelling and interesting.
14 out of 18 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 7, 2012
This book is the work of one man. Hundreds have written about Jefferson. Please take the time to study the entire person, flaws and all.
I too was offended that Thomsas Jefferson not only owned slaves but had relations with Sally Hemming.
But, if you read a variety of the works of Jefferson, you'll realize that he lived in a time when slavery was acceptable, not right, but acceptable.
He felt strongly that this battle was for another generation.
In his 40 or so years of public service, he was a Representative, Governor of Virginia, Secretary of State, Vice President and President. Oh, and did I forget to mention that he authored the Declaration of Independence and fought hard to see that our nation didn't turn into a monarcy.He wasn't perfect, but pretty close.
13 out of 16 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 10, 2012
Gordon S. Wood says this is the best single volume about Thomas Jefferson. That is enough for me. I have asked for it as a Christmas present.
12 out of 15 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Jefferson’s history as a political leader, philosopher and student of republican government, scientist, planter, slave-owner, and gentrified land owner was what defined him as perhaps our most famous president. As a member of the House of Burgesses, Continental Congress, Governor of Virginia, Minister to France, Secretary of State, Vice-President, and President, Jefferson used his background and experiences to define not only his own personal beliefs, but also the politics of his days given the power that he held in those offices. For me this was the most interesting aspect of the book.
In this book Jon Meacham illustrates how Jefferson was such an important figure in the process of defining what the United States was to become, how it was to be governed, and how it was to be led. My take is that Jefferson was the right person at the right time concerning our country. Born in 1743, Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence at 33 in 1776, was elected president in 1800 after a bitter political fight, served 2 terms as President, and died on the same day, July 4th, 1826 as the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. That same day in 1826, near Boston, John Adams also died.
For me, the most interesting aspect of the book is that from the very beginnings of the United States, politics have played major roles. Even “the father of our country,” George Washington was thought of as a Federalist, even by some of the democratic-republicans of Virginia such as Jefferson and Madison. John Adams, our 2nd president, was traditionally a Whig in the early days of the revolution, but also realized that a monarchial form of government was not in the best interest of liberty loving Americans. It was the political differences between Jefferson, the democratic-republican, and Alexander Hamilton, the staunch Federalist, that fueled the heated discourse during the presidential election of 1800, manifested in the political conflict between Jefferson and John Adams in that election. From page 458, Meacham quotes from a letter written by Jefferson to John Adams in June, 1813,
“Men have differed in opinion, and been divided into parties by these opinions, from the first origin of societies, and in all governments where they have been permitted freely to think and to speak. The same political parties which now agitate the U.S. have existed through all time. Whether the power of the people, or that of the [best men; nobles] should prevail, were questions which kept the states of Greece and Rome in eternal convulsions…As we had longer than most others on the public theatre, and our names therefore were more familiar to our countrymen, the party which considered you as thinking with them, placed your name at their head, for the same reason selected mine.”
At Monticello, Jefferson was master of his own domain which included land, plantations, buildings, and slaves. While there was certainly abolitionist movements within the states,“southern states” including Virginia depended upon slavery. Jefferson was certain slavery would be abolished, but he felt it would be left to succeeding generations to make that happen. While he was still alive, his children from Sally Hemings, a slave and half-sister of his wife, were considered slaves. When he died, Sally and all children and grandchildren were considered to be free.
10 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 14, 2012
I found this book to be heavy on detail but lacking in substance. The author only mentions in passing the debate while drafting the Declaration of Independence regarding separation of church and state. I would have enjoyed a discussion of the various positions taken by the founders. Also, when discussing the roles Jefferson and Adams played as diplomats to France and Great Britain, respectively, I would have appreciated a fuller discussion of what arguements they used in an effort to convince Great Britain that it was better off without the colonies. But, the author chose to spend more time dealing with petty matters such as Jefferson's personal correspondence, and the gifts he purchased for himself and the Adams. After a while, this book becomes tedious.
8 out of 12 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 13, 2012
He'S A GREAT GUY TO LEARN ABOUT! I'm learning about him and the Revulosanry War.
7 out of 56 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 15, 2012
This is one of the most insightful probings of Jefferson and his life that I have ever read! I have many books on Jefferson and his style of power, but this one I truly believe is at the top of the heap!
4 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 8, 2012
100 pages into this book and not impressed. While the author has clearly researched his topic he offers only quotes strung together in an awkward style. I will eventually finish reading because I hate to waste money. I guess I am just not enough of a snobbish intellectual. Tell me a great story, not just a string of facts.
4 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 11, 2012
If you like to read about presidents, then read this book. Jon Meacham has a way of writing that makes history so interesting. A must for your personal library.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 14, 2012
This novel offers new insights to the mind and thinking of Thomas Jefferson and how the visions and actions he took, not only while drafting the Declaration of Independence, but his ideas and philosophies of dispensing government. The reason is that this novel gives us a new insight in my belief of Jefferson's thinking is the focus on the formative years that many may not know about, his becoming master of a house at 14 and the teachings of his teachers and mentors thru his teens and takes us on a new journey thru his life, founding a great read
1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 14, 2012
Meacham tells a wonderful story of a great American in a way that everyone can enjoy, not just the history buffs. I am a history teacher and do love a good biography and realize they can be a bit dry. Meacham helps us to view the events of Jefferson's life from the perspective of Jefferson himself, giving life to the story of his life. This is well written and well researched.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 10, 2012
All I can say is another excellent biography By Author Jon Meacham. He gets his facts straight and gets into person's character. A must read if you are an American and want more information on our founding fathers.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted December 8, 2012
Great reading for history buffs!
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 18, 2012
This book is terrible
1 out of 78 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 16, 2013
Meacham strives to help the reader better understand Jefferson "the man" as well as Jefferson "the iconic leader". He explains how Jefferson's background and philosphy differed in varying degrees with those of his historial peers and how these differences positively impacted the shaping of our nation. Also, the author cautions us to judge historical figures by the times in which they lived, not by the standards of our times- which might allow 21st century readers to better appreciate Jefferson.
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Overview
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • The Seattle Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch
In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex ...