Thomas Jefferson the art of power

3.5 stars
I enjoyed listening to this over several weeks while at work.
It was fascinating to learn more about one of our founding fathers, and I definitely learned plenty I never knew, and I was reminded of plenty I'd forgotten since American history class.
I've always enjoyed learning more about American history and the Revolution, but the main reason I picked this audiobook was because Richard Gilmore was narrating and it sounded like a conversation about books between Richard and Rory. ❤️ iykyk.

I can appreciate that an incredible amount of work went into creating this biography. However, the writing is so incredibly uneven. The Louisiana Purchase is given perhaps 2-3 pages total. I've certainly read better Founding Father biographies.

This book was engaging and informative! The author gave a well rounded view of who Jefferson was, both the politician and the individual. I loved getting to know his personhood more, see his grief, and picture him as a loving grandfather. Although I understood greater how different I am from him ideologically, I grew in my appreciation of his impact on American politics and government.

Didn't change my view that TJ was sort of a jerk. Author's point is that we, at this distance, don't see how scared TJ was, how the threat of British re-conquest seemed so real. Jefferson would do anything to prevent what he saw as leading to that. Author more or less referred to TJ as passive-aggressive. Virginian way not to have conflicts, just sort of slide around them instead. Write something nasty but don't put your name to it. Have other people do the dirty work.