However, by only presenting Jefferson’s perceptions of events the narrative fails to correct the many misconceptions and demonstrable blunders Jefferson never acknowledged, not least of which were his moral failure on slavery, paranoia over the motives and intentions of his equally brilliant archrival, Alexander Hamilton, and an obsession with secrecy that often crossed the line to duplicity. Therein lies both the strength and weakness of Meacham’s book.īy telling Jefferson’s story only from Jefferson’s point of view, Meacham presents a fascinating window into the workings of this amazing man’s mind. Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham’s “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power” (now in paperback) presents our third president as he saw himself, the living embodiment of the patriot-statesman whose sole interest was defending the common man against those who would establish an American monarchy. Jefferson was born into great wealth, college educated and was, by temperament, a natural aristocrat, yet he fancied himself a yeoman farmer this is just one of the many contradictions found in the most contradictory of our great Founding Fathers. For the first 150 years of our nation’s history, it was almost mandatory for a candidate seeking elective office to present himself to voters as a “simple Jeffersonian democrat,” and no politician worked more tirelessly to burnish that image than Thomas Jefferson himself.
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