Thomas Jefferson: Author of America
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"A balanced, readable portrait. A refreshing perspective.” —New York Times Book Review With intelligence, insight, eloquence, and wit, bestselling author Christopher Hitchens gives us an artful portrait of a complex, formative figure in American history and his turbulent era. In this unique biography of Thomas Jefferson, leading journalist and social critic Christopher Hitchens offers a startlingly new and provocative interpretation of our Founding Father—a man conflicted by power who wrote the Declaration of Independence and acted as ambassador to France yet yearned for a quieter career in the Virginia legislature. A masterly writer, Jefferson was an awkward public speaker. A professed proponent of emancipation, he elided the issue of slavery from the Declaration of Independence and continued to own human property. A reluctant candidate, he left an indelible presidential legacy.
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Written as if from the perspective of a good friend or child of Jefferson's, Hitchens's biography feels straightforward and honest, if generous, to the life and thoughts of this Founding Father. The prose is interesting and varied, while never revealing any hidden bias on the part of Hitchens; on the contrary: he's forthright with his thoughts, noted in parentheticals.
The book's brevity requires a summary-style treatment of Jefferson and the various plots and intrigues of his life, though, which necessitates omission of details that would, I think, greatly improve the reader's understanding of the events in which Jefferson found himself and perhaps more of why he acted the way he did. I enjoyed the lack of overt pull from Hitchens, though, and the effortless lessons about Jefferson from the perspective of an admirer.
