Is there anything new to say about Thomas Jefferson and slavery? The answer is a resounding yes. Master of the Mountain, Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive book - based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papers - opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world. We must, Wiencek suggests, follow the money. So far, historians have offered only easy irony or paradox to explain this extraordinary Founding Father who was an emancipationist in his youth and then recoiled from his own inspiring rhetoric and equivocated about slavery; who enjoyed his renown as a revolutionary leader yet kept some of his own children as slaves. But Wiencek's Jefferson is a man of business and public affairs who makes a success of his debt-ridden plantation thanks to what he calls the "silent profits" gained from his slaves - and thanks to a skewed moral universe that he and thousands of others readily inhabited. The pursuit of happiness had been badly distorted, and an oligarchy was getting very rich. Is this the quintessential American story?
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"[A] brilliant examination of the dark side of the man who gave the world the most ringing declarations about human liberty."
--Jonathan Yardley, "The Washington Post
""In this deeply provocative and crisply written journey into the dark heart of slavery at Monticello, Henry Wiencek brings into focus a side of Jefferson that Americans have largely failed--or not cared--to see. This book will change forever the way that we think about the author of the Declaration of Independence."
--Fergus M. Bordewich, "The Wall Street Journal
"
"As an engrossing investigation into Jefferson's change of heart and mind, "Master of the Mountain "is narrative history wrapped around an incendiary device: surely, political pundits and Jeffersonians will be wrestling over Wiencek's explosive interpretations of the historical evidence--some of it newly discovered--for years to come . . . One of the incontestable strengths of Wiencek's book is the way it transports readers deep into the hierarchical world of Jefferson's Monticello."
--Maureen Corrigan, "Fresh Air
""[Wiencek's] account of Jefferson's evolving and convoluted position on the subject is all the more damning for his restraint . . . Every American should read it. As depicted by Wiencek, the older Jefferson resembles a modern-day 1-percenter . . . We try to persuade ourselves that the author of some of our most inspiring political works was not a self-serving hypocrite. But given the bountiful evidence offered in "Master of the Mountain," it's now impossible to see him any other way."
--Laura Miller, "Salon
""[A] commanding stud[y] of a central area of American history, and [a] pioneering work[ ] in an ongoing battle for justice. Wiencek provides more detail about Thomas Jefferson's history of slaveholding than has ever existed in one place before, making an important adjustment to a bowdlerized historical record."
--Lawrence P. Jackson, "Los Angeles Review of Books
""Compelli
Sprache
Verlagsort
Produkt-Hinweis
Broschur/Paperback
Klebebindung
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 221 mm
Breite: 146 mm
Dicke: 30 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-374-53402-8 (9780374534028)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Klassifikation
Henry Wiencek, a nationally prominent historian and writer, is the author of several books, including The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1999, and, most recently, Master of the Mountain: Thomas Jefferson and His Slaves.
