Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (2012)

Very informative and balanced biography of Jefferson. This is the book I was looking for. It also provides great insight into the forming of our country. Highly recommended!
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Not what I was looking for. I've been looking for a book which looks at the Jefferson Administration and focuses on the political issues and strategic decisions J made at the time. This biography seemed like a good pick because of the subtitle: "Art of power." I was wrong. This is a conventional biography, which spends more time talking about Jefferson's slippers and what kind of dinner guest he was, than it does about the decisions he made as president. The author mostly takes a "man of his time" approach to the issue of Jefferson, Hemmings, and slavery, but it doesn't sugar coat too much. It does a little though. The larger political history is fairly cursory, so if that's what you were interested in, like I was, then this isn't a good pick. I must say though, the book edition itself is absolutely gorgeous. I love the gold trimming, and the book has awesome double paged prints and pictures between the chapter which I spent a long time staring at. ( )

I like Jon Meacham, particularly his appearances on MSNBC. JM is one of their greatest asstes.

As far as "Thomas Jefferson The Art of Power" (TJAP), I expected better. Interestingly, there is a blurb on the cover: "Probably the best single-volume biography of Jefferson ever written." Probably? Who needs "probably"? Man, I want The Best ! Probably! Single volume? Wow, how many gibes can you get in a 10 word endorsement? What publisher in his right mind etc etc. But "single-volume" is exactly my biggest problem with 760 page....(514 pages of text, BTW). By the time, Meacham got to TJ's second term, it felt to me as though he had run out of gas. It felt to me that nothing happened in those four years....Probably - there's that word again - would have been better as a two volume, Presidential years and all else.

And I have one more grievance. I felt TJ was quoted verbatim a good bit too much. They talked kind of funny in those days and I didn't enjoy re-reading some of those passages to translate to present day Virginia English. Some word-for-word was fine, but probably would have been better if.....In truth a 3 1/2 star. ( )

Thoroughly enjoyed this book by Meacham even after reading much about Jefferson in the past. ( )

Good historical information but the author has an annoying habit of taking a sentence from something Jefferson wrote (or someone said he said) and psychoanalyzing him based on that one sentence. It got to be really really annoying. ( )