

S'està carregant… Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power (2012)de Jon Meacham
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No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. An interesting read and such a difference from current leadership or what passes as leadership I slowed way down, even though I liked it. Enjoyable reading to replace the myths I learned in school with the story of a real man. The last few decades have not been kind to the reputation of Thomas Jefferson. Recent biographies of John Adams and Alexander Hamilton have extolled their subjects' virtues at Jefferson’s expense. Further, strong evidence that he probably fathered children with Sally Hemings has lent weight to public perceptions of the man's hypocrisy. Jon Meachem’s Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power offers a balanced view, one that acknowledges his subject's flaws while recognizing his greatness as a founding father and U.S. president. Meachem’s biography is a substantive work of nearly 500 pages (not including 200 pages of notes and bibliography). While I cannot judge its accuracy, it is an extraordinarily detailed and well- documented account of Jefferson’s life, replete with endnotes for the serious reader. The image of Jefferson that emerges is that of a human being in all his complexity – a flawed giant if you will, who dreamed large and accomplished great things, as one of the founders of a nation. As a modern reader not steeped on politics of the era, I was intrigued to learn of the bitter political quarrels that divided the early nation, and the vitriol that characterized political debate. I was also interested to learn just how effective Jefferson was as a politician, despite strong opposition, weak resources, and the precarious situation the colonies and resultant nation faced. One need only remember that Jefferson doubled the size of the newly formed United States, and expanded its outlook to the Pacific, to acknowledge his stamp on the country's history. This work is extensive as a biography, but less so as a history of the times in which Jefferson lived. Events are recounted insofar as they involved Jefferson. Thus, much of the Revolutionary War occurs off-stage, as it were, directly involving Jefferson only when he was forced to flee Monticello barely ahead of the British troops. As for the difficult issue of slavery, Meachem is no apologist, but somewhat redresses the balance of recent criticism by describing the multiple occasions in which Jefferson proposed a national ban on slavery, at risk to his own political career. The seeming contradiction between his protagonist’s public and private life is left a mystery, against which commentators are free to project their own interpretations. (As the author pointed out in a recent public lecture [quoting Arthur Schlesinger], self- righteousness is easy; it is also cheap.) I found this a dense but informative work, from which I learned a great deal. I would certainly recommend it to any serious reader who wishes to learn more about this complex, brilliant, and accomplished man. The author covers the life and times of Jefferson.
Meacham has chosen storytelling over analysis, offering up a genial but meandering narrative. There is some meat in the book, but finding it requires dexterity and doggedness—checking the endnotes after every ten pages or so to see what is missing from the passing panorama. Meacham has read the scholarly literature on Jefferson—some of it critical—but doesn’t let enough of this debate intrude on the storytelling, which nearly always puts Jefferson in the best possible light. Mr. Meacham intends “The Art of Power” as a portrait that “neither lionizes nor indicts Jefferson, but instead restores him to his full and rich role as an American statesman who resists easy categorization.” That sounds bolder than it proves to be. It’s a polite way of staking out middle ground.
"Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power" gives readers Jefferson the politician and president, a great and complex human being forever engaged in the wars of his era. Philosophers think; politicians maneuver. Jefferson's genius was that he was both and could do both, often simultaneously, catapulting him into becoming the most successful political leader of the early republic, and perhaps in all of American history. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
![]() Autor amb llibres seus als Crítics Matiners de LibraryThingEl llibre de Jon Meacham The Art of Power estava disponible a LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Dóna't d'alta per obtenir una còpia prèvia a canvi d'una ressenya.
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