Thomas
Jefferson hated confrontation, and yet his understanding of power and of
human nature enabled him to move men and to marshal ideas, to learn
from his mistakes, and to prevail. Passionate about many things—women,
his family, books, science, architecture, gardens, friends, Monticello,
and Paris—Jefferson loved America most, and he strove over and over
again, despite fierce opposition, to realize his vision: the creation,
survival, and success of popular government in America. Jon Meacham lets
us see Jefferson’s world as Jefferson himself saw it, and to appreciate
how Jefferson found the means to endure and win in the face of rife
partisan division, economic uncertainty, and external threat. Drawing on
archives in the United States, England, and France, as well as
unpublished Jefferson presidential papers, Meacham presents Jefferson as
the most successful political leader of the early republic, and perhaps
in all of American history.
The father of the ideal of
individual liberty, of the Louisiana Purchase, of the Lewis and Clark
expedition, and of the settling of the West, Jefferson recognized that
the genius of humanity—and the genius of the new nation—lay in the
possibility of progress, of discovering the undiscovered and seeking the
unknown. From the writing of the Declaration of Independence to elegant
dinners in Paris and in the President’s House; from political
maneuverings in the boardinghouses and legislative halls of Philadelphia
and New York to the infant capital on the Potomac; from his complicated
life at Monticello, his breathtaking house and plantation in Virginia,
to the creation of the University of Virginia, Jefferson was central to
the age. Here too is the personal Jefferson, a man of appetite,
sensuality, and passion.
The Jefferson story resonates today not
least because he led his nation through ferocious partisanship and
cultural warfare amid economic change and external threats, and also
because he embodies an eternal drama, the struggle of the leadership of a
nation to achieve greatness in a difficult and confounding world
America's First Daughter
In a compelling, richly
researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original
sources, bestselling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the
fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha
“Patsy” Jefferson Randolph—a woman who kept the secrets of our most
enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.
From her
earliest days, Patsy Jefferson knows that though her father loves his
family dearly, his devotion to his country runs deeper still. As Thomas
Jefferson’s oldest daughter, she becomes his helpmate, protector, and
constant companion in the wake of her mother’s death, traveling with him
when he becomes American minister to France.
It is in Paris, at
the glittering court and among the first tumultuous days of revolution,
that fifteen-year-old Patsy learns about her father’s troubling liaison
with Sally Hemings, a slave girl her own age. Meanwhile, Patsy has
fallen in love—with her father’s protégé William Short, a staunch
abolitionist and ambitious diplomat. Torn between love, principles, and
the bonds of family, Patsy questions whether she can choose a life as
William’s wife and still be a devoted daughter.
Her choice will
follow her in the years to come, to Virginia farmland, Monticello, and
even the White House. And as scandal, tragedy, and poverty threaten her
family, Patsy must decide how much she will sacrifice to protect her
father's reputation, in the process defining not just his political
legacy, but that of the nation he founded.
MY REVIEW: Thomas
Jefferson was immeasurably complex--as fascinated with the world as the
world would become, and remain, fascinated with the man himself.
Jefferson's legacy is indelible, not without scandal, and it continues
to evolve. He was a man of words and a man of letters--many thousands of
letters and many more thousands of words. After the death of her
mother, his eldest daughter, Martha, called "Patsy", would become her
father's helpmate and traveling companion, assisting him when he became
America's minister to France. "America's First Daughter", by Stephanie
Dray and Laura Kamoie, is a first-person telling of Patsy's personal
life and her life as the daughter of the brilliant historical icon
Thomas Jefferson. Always devoted to her father and his public and
political standing, Patsy would sacrifice much of her own personal
happiness to protect and preserve the Jefferson name. In her role as a
guardian of both her father and the nation he helped to found, Patsy
Jefferson shaped the country and its history as no one else could.
Book Copy Gratis Library Thing
The bestselling
historian and biographer of Boone turns his storytelling genius to the
lives of ten American legends, each caught in the act of securing
America’s past. From Thomas Jefferson’s birth in 1743 to the California
gold rush in 1849, America’s Manifest Destiny comes to life in the
skilled hands of a writer fascinated by the way individual lives
collectively impact history.
Jefferson, a naturalist and
visionary, dreamed that the United States would stretch across the
continent; from ocean to ocean. The account of how that dream became
reality unfolds in the stories of Jefferson and nine other
Americans-Andrew Jackson, John “Johnny Appleseed” Chapman, David
Crockett, Sam Houston, James K. Polk, Winfield Scott, Kit Carson,
Nicholas Trist, and John Quincy Adams whose adventurous spirits pushed
the westward boundaries. Their tenacity was matched only by that of
their enemies: the Mexican army under Santa Anna at the Alamo, the
Comanche and Apache Indians, and the forbidding geography itself. Known
also for his powerful fiction, Morgan uses his skill at characterization
to give life to the personalities of ten Americans who inspired their
countrymen and without whom the United States might well have stopped at
Arkansas.
With illustrations, portraits, maps, battle plans, chronological and contextual appendixes, notes, and time lines, Lions of the West is a richly authoritative biography of America-its ideals, its promise, its romance, and its destiny.
The surprising story
of how Thomas Jefferson commanded an unrivaled age of American
exploration—and in presiding over that era of discovery, forged a great
nation.
At the dawn of the nineteenth century, as Britain,
France, Spain, and the United States all jockeyed for control of the
vast expanses west of the Mississippi River, the stakes for American
expansion were incalculably high. Even after the American purchase of
the Louisiana Territory, Spain still coveted that land and was prepared
to employ any means to retain it. With war expected at any moment,
Jefferson played a game of strategy, putting on the ground the only
Americans he could: a cadre of explorers who finally annexed it through
courageous investigation.
Responsible for orchestrating the
American push into the continent was President Thomas Jefferson. He most
famously recruited Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, who led the
Corps of Discovery to the Pacific, but at the same time there were other
teams who did the same work, in places where it was even more crucial.
William Dunbar, George Hunter, Thomas Freeman, Peter Custis, and the
dauntless Zebulon Pike—all were dispatched on urgent missions to map the
frontier and keep up a steady correspondence with Washington about
their findings.
But they weren’t always well-matched—with each
other and certainly not with a Spanish army of a thousand soldiers or
more. These tensions threatened to undermine Jefferson’s goals for the
nascent country, leaving the United States in danger of losing its
foothold in the West. Deeply researched and inspiringly told, Jefferson’s America
rediscovers the robust and often harrowing action from these seminal
expeditions and illuminates the president’s vision for a continental
America.
MY REVIEW: Lovers
of American history, particularly the wild and woolly Frontier Era,
will greatly enjoy "Jefferson's America". Author Julie M. Fenster writes
with gusto and a real love of subject as she tells a true-life
adventure tale that is more enthralling than fiction or film. Thomas
Jefferson played a master's game of chess to block Britain, France, and
Spain from gaining permanent control of the vast land to the West of the
Continental States. His key chess pieces were an eclectic group of
explorers whose eccentricities were as notable as were their brave
proclivities. Along with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Jefferson
also engaged William Dunbar, George Hunter, Thomas Freeman, Peter
Custis, and Zebulon Pike to scout, map, and document the scope and range
of the land to the West. The author imbues this factual account with
descriptive details which bring to life the personalities and politics
of the day, and a section of black and white art and photos gives a
glimpse of this portion of the past. Most intriguing is the last
photo--a view from Jefferson's home, Monticello, looking toward the
West.
Book Copy Gratis via Blogging for Books
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Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father who was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence. He died on July 4th, 1826 at his home, Monticello, in Virginia.
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