Jefferson

You know him well, by reputation. But what was Thomas Jefferson really like? The man whom author Page Smith has found in this perceptive biography is someone you can envision at eye level, even get to know. Here is an artist-with words, with architecture, with ideas. He is not a good politican. He is not a businessman. The inheritor of large estates and many slaves, and a studious, eager farmer, he nevertheless stays in debt for most of his improvident life. He tolls the "common man," yet loves the amenities of a decadent Europe. He calls for revolution, but the imperatives of war immobilize him. Once you have met Thomas Jefferson the man, Thomas Jefferson the American hero and legend becomes all the more impressive.