One can hear Jefferson’s amusement and the subtle ironies and wit of his voice, see the lift of an eyebrow and his warmth as we read his passages, framed by Meacham’s writing. One can imagine Jefferson sitting by the sunny window of his corner office in the White House, his pet mockingbird, Dick, perched on his shoulder singing, his red roses and geraniums in pots on the sill, humming along as he worked through the federal correspondence twelve hours a day (he read and corrected all federal paperwork).Įven more wondrously, Jon Meacham, the author, brings Jefferson’s voice back to life. The characters and the scenes come to life. And that’s the delight of this Jefferson biography. He was given great tracts of land for surveying the Virginia-North Carolina border, a feat when one imagines surveying a straight line several hundred miles long through the wild forest mountains and swamps. Jefferson’s father, Peter, was a renowned frontiersman in the early 1700s. Thomas Jefferson, The Art of Power is a portrait of Jefferson, the political theorist and working politician who, by intent, became a world historical figure. Of all our great men, we know most and least of Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson was given many gifts: wealth, in the form of plantations and slaves, vast natural talents, education, health, powerful family connections, a capacity for hard work, a nose for the main chance and the political savvy to take it.
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