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. Situating Jefferson within the context of
America's evolution and tracing his legacy over the past
two hundred years, Hitchens brings the character of
Jefferson to life as a man of his time and also as a
symbolic figure beyond it.
Conflicted by power, Jefferson wrote the Declaration of
Independence and acted as Minister to France yet yearned
for a quieter career in the Virginia legislature.
Predicting that slavery would shape the future of America's
development, this professed proponent of emancipation
elided the issue in the Declaration and continued to own
human property. An eloquent writer, he was an awkward
public speaker; a reluctant candidate, he left an indelible
presidential legacy.
Jefferson's statesmanship enabled him to negotiate the
Louisiana Purchase with France, doubling the size of the
nation, and he authorized the Lewis and Clark expedition,
opening up the American frontier for exploration and
settlement. Hitchens also analyzes Jefferson's handling of
the Barbary War, a lesser-known chapter of his political
career, when his attempt to end the kidnapping and bribery
of Americans by the Barbary states, and the subsequent war
with Tripoli, led to the building of the U.S. navy and the
fortification of America's reputation regarding national
defense.
In the background of this sophisticated analysis is a large
historical drama: the fledgling nation's struggle for
independence, formed in the crucible of the eighteenth-
century Enlightenment, and, in its shadow, the deformation
of that struggle in the excesses of the French Revolution.
This artful portrait of a formative figure and a turbulent
era poses a challenge to anyone interested in American
history -- or in the ambiguities of human nature.
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