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    Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
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    Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
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    Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
    Audiobook18 hours

    Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power

    Published by Penguin Random House Audio

    Narrated by Edward Herrmann

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • The Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • The Seattle Times • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • Bloomberg Businessweek

    In this magnificent biography, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion and Franklin and Winston brings vividly to life an extraordinary man and his remarkable times. Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power gives us 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. Such is the art of power.

    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 Drawing on archives in the United States, England, and France, as well as unpublished Jefferson presidential papers, Meacham presents Jefferson as the most successful political leader of the early republic, and perhaps in all of American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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateNov 13, 2012
    ISBN9780739334621
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Thomas Jefferson

    4/5

    325 ratings54 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I enjoyed the book and it is amazing how history repeats itself. I know it's an ancient comment but it is still valid today! I thought the book was really going to be very long but when I finally finished it, I saw that about 40+% was foot notes. I was reading a borrowed Kindle copy from the library so I couldn't easily tell that!
    • 5/5
      Wonderful review of Thomas Jefferson; the reader is reminded of how much the USA currently lacks such political leadership and vision now!
    • 4/5
      I just finished this solid book about our third President, Thomas Jefferson. It had been many years since I had read a book exclusively about Jefferson, and the first I can remember that basically defends him against the early Federalist leaning Founding Fathers. This was a good book in that is covers all of the topics you would expect, including his views on slavery and his relationship with Sally Hemmings. I think the author does a good job of admitting the faults and contradictions of Jefferson while defending them as a part of his greater personality. I don't necessarily buy every argument, but I think the subject was treated fairly and professionally.

      My only real issue with the book was that at times it came across as very disjointed to me. The writing was very good, but it seemed to jump around at times from one topic to the next in a manner that was abrupt. Perhaps this was just something that happened to me but it hit me more than a few times. In addition, I felt that the book could have (and probably should have) been longer and dealt with some topics in more depth. The author states that his focus was on Jefferson's "art of leadership" and his philosophical thought process, but more background would have helped frame the story better in many places.

      Overall a good read and one I would recommend to students of history.
    • 4/5
      This is my kind of history and my kind of biography. Jefferson's influence achieved crucial impact in his own time and lasting effect ever since. Meacham reveals the complexity of Jefferson's mind and the consistency of his character. The history is full of detail, backed by hundreds of pages of end notes. What I most value from this work is how Jefferson balanced idealism and pragmatism, making big, risky moves at the right key moments during America's infancy. His approach to politics and relationships relied on congeniality even for fierce opponents. His capacity for deep conversation across an unbelievable range of subjects, combined with his disarming nature, won him support from friends and adversaries alike.
    • 5/5
      Excellent book on Thomas Jefferson. I believe Meacham fairly portrayed our third president's strengths and weaknesses without hiding any of the contradictions of his life. America is so much a reflection of Jefferson's philosophy and character.
    • 3/5
      Author Jon Meacham claims this is not intended to be a full scale biography but a study of how Jefferson gained and exercised power. But there is too much narration of Jefferson's very full life with too few insights into how and why he was so successful in so many important times in the early years of America. The period of Jefferson's 8 year presidency is the best part of the book. And in the concluding chapters, Meacham provides some interesting insights into how Jefferson exercised power. While he does not hold back highlighting Jefferson's many faults, he doesn't provide many new insights into the contradictions about the man and the politician.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book. It is written in a popular format for lay people, but it is highly informative and entertaining. Some people have complained that it glossed over some important details, but I don't believe that's the fault of the author, or of the book. The fault lies in the format, and any exhaustive study of Mr. Jefferson would be a multi-volume work. One could think of this book as a primer for further study. Well done, Mr. Meacham. Thank you for bringing Mr. Jefferson to the masses.
    • 4/5
      in an interesting analysis of Jefferson as a man comfortable exercising political, positional and personal power to achieve his desired ends, Meacham proves himself to be a Jefferson advocate if not apologist. He takes Jefferson's version of events, giving him credit for the meeting that led to a vital compromise on the new nation taking on the debts of the states, for the Monroe Doctrine, etc. While I do not entirely agree with this stance, I do agree that this biography is a worth addition to the many available seeking to better understand America's most enigmatic president.
    • 4/5
      Having read "Hamilton" I was interested in his nemesis, Thomas Jefferson. As in Hamilton, the writer of this book paints a positive picture of Jefferson, a man born of a wealthy slave holding family in Virginia. Jefferson was a man of many talents as a farmer, architect, writer, and politician. He always appeared to be resistant to the idea of leadership, but managed to become a leader. Jefferson was one who spoke little, seemed to tell people what they wanted to hear, yet almost always got his way.The book paints a picture of his life on the plantation, his years in France, and his years as the first Secretary of State and President. I read this book as a comparison to Hamilton which I thoroughly enjoyed. Perhaps I had overdosed on the Revolutionary War, but this one did not capture my attention as the Hamilton book did. Jefferson was a complete opposite to Hamilton. Born an aristocrat, he championed the common man where Hamilton was born a common man and led the Federalist cause mistrusting the those. The distinctions between the two were great, but both brought the balance necessary for our government at the time. Jefferson was also a man of great contradiction especially in regard to his slaves, particularly his almost life long relationship with Sally Hemings who bore him several children.Must admit, I did quit reading soon after his presidency and "skimmed" the rest.
    • 4/5
      Took me a bit longer than normal to finish this book, but that's because it's so thorough and informative. A wonderful history of the personal life and political contributions of one of the founding fathers.
    • 4/5
      For those of you who may be hesitant to read this book because of the sheer size, don't despair! The book ends around 54% because of the footnotes, photos, etc. If you like early American history, this book should suit you.

      I learned more about Jefferson than I thought possible. I knew about his mistress Sally Hemmings. I knew he loved his country and wanted her to grow and prosper. For someone who wrote the Declaration of Independence, I found it odd that he had differing views on the rights of slaves and American Indians. He freed his slaves--in his will.

      Despite his flaws, Jefferson was still a great man with a great vision. Not everyone agreed with him, but he learned the art of power and how to harness that power and use it to his advantage.

      My favorite thing about Jefferson is that he loved to read as much as I do. Knowledge is power and he embraced that.
    • 4/5
      There is a trend afoot to discredit our national heroes to affirm today`s political correctness. Fortunately, Meacham does not do this in his book. He details the long life of Jefferson fairly, warts and all. The infighting and rivalries were the same as today. It is a wonder that one individual had enough time to be expert in so many fields in addition to his political expertise.
    • 4/5
      With this biography, Meacham appears to continue to float in that narrative sphere between popular journalist-historians (Alter,Woolfe) and popular academic-historians (Ellis, Kearns Goodwin, Morris). His writing most closely resembles (in many, many ways) Walter Isaacson and David McCullough. They write similar types of biographies and seem to inhabit a similar clumped intellectual range.That said, while Meacham's style will never perfectly thrill academic historians, this biography is interesting and paced-well and shouldn't trouble too many presidential history buffs. Meacham has never had a real boat-tipping agenda with his biographies. He certainly wants to make Jefferson's life, times and experiences (told largely through secondary sources, anecdotes and at times brilliant story-telling) relevant to our current political and social setting. He did this wonderfully with FDR and Jackson and has continued his record with this excellent bio of Jefferson.
    • 5/5
      Jon Meacham's "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power" provides a readable synopsis of the life of America's third president from his childhood to his deathbed. While readers looking for in-depth analyses of the major political, economic, and social themes in Jefferson's life may find the volume lacking, Meacham provides a wonderful overview for those new to the subject. Meacham does not burden his prose with any overly-scholarly language and thus the book is very accessible to the lay reader. The constant breaks in each chapter do sometimes become distracting but this is a minor flaw - overall the biography is worthwhile.
    • 3/5
      This biography was good, but too short. I would have enjoyed more detail, more depth, about Jefferson's life and career.
    • 2/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      An interesting read and such a difference from current leadership or what passes as leadership
    • 4/5
      The author covers the life and times of Jefferson.
    • 5/5
      Historically and personally interesting biography of Thomas Jefferson and the times in which he lived. If it wasn't for his stubborn and persistent efforts to keep America a government by the people, we might be a monarchy today. It's astonishing how few men of his day worked tirelessly and for most of their productive lifetimes to fend off enemies who would take over the young states or western parts of the US and to ensure that this country didn't become what the colonists had just left behind.

      I found some wry humor in the fact that the political parties haven't changed much in 200 years as far as mud-slinging before elections and opposing each other at every turn. Jefferson understood that opposing parties are essential to our democracy. Jefferson was a fascinating person in both his public and private lives. The book reveals his family life, his quiet hours, his concerns and thoughts, his friendships, and more. This is the most highly researched book I've ever read.

      This was a slow read for me, not exactly a page-turner. However, I feel enriched intellectually for the read and will always remember the lessons and history I learned. If more of us would read this kind of history, we would appreciate our country in new ways. What we have today was hard-won and lives were dedicated to providing our freedoms, whole lifetimes, in fact. War isn't the only way to achieve great things. It's definitely not the best way.

      Thomas Jefferson's gentle, congenial, and highly intelligent manner belied a steely conviction that served us well. He authored the Declaration of Independence and procured much of the western US for the young states. Jefferson spent some years in France, living as an ambassador. There are many other surprising revelations in this literary biography.

      Recommended for anyone who enjoys history, especially of how the US came to be what it is today, and how it almost didn't.

    • 4/5
      A fascinating portrait of one of the most dynamic of America's Founding Fathers. Jon Meacham does not attempt to explore every detail of Jefferson's varied life; rather, he focuses on displaying Jefferson's character and political skill. I appreciated Meacham's approach, especially as he showed how some of Jefferson's traits, such as avoidance of conflict, worked to his advance at various points in his life. On the other hand, his realistic description of Jefferson's relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and their children made me wonder whether this president is worth the accolades he's been given. Nevertheless, Meacham gives a very realistic and pragmatic picture of Jefferson, a man who was a legend in his own time.
    • 3/5
      I found this book one of the weaker biographical works I have read. It is an easy read but it doesn't really go deep enough, doesn't provide enough background information. Sometimes it goes on a tangent, providing long but not very important quotes. I guess it does concentrate more on a character of Thomas Jefferson but I would like to see a more serious work of history.
    • 5/5
      A strong, vivid picture of one of the Founding Fathers of our country. It makes the man seem human and forever at the same time. He was a great and humble man and oft revered. The book is highly readable and never lets you down.
    • 4/5
      Meacham goes out of his way to portray the human side of TJ, promoting the impression that, although not perfect, he was darn good.
    • 5/5
      Because I so enjoyed reading Meacham's masterful biography of Andrew Jackson, which I read on May 23, 2009, I decided to read this 2012 biography by him of Jefferson--even though I read Dumas Malone's six-volume biography of Jefferson--5 volumes in 1978 and the final sixth volume on 26 Nov 1981, This Meacham book is meticulously researched and a joy to read, with 174 pages of notes and a 37 page bibliography. The chapters are short , making for easy stopping places. The whole eventful life of Jefferson is covered. I thought after Jefferson's amazing making of the Louisiana Purchase the excitement in his life was over but the book does an excellent job of maintaining interest right up to the end of his presidency in 1809 and through his pleasant years of retirement up to the dramatic conclusion of his life on July 4, 1826--the 50th anniversary of the Declaration when he and John Adams both died. Meacham accepts the facts in regard to Sally Hemmings--I think in six volumes Malone never mentioned he. This is a great work and fun to read.
    • 4/5
      With this biography, Meacham appears to continue to float in that narrative sphere between popular journalist-historians (Alter,Woolfe) and popular academic-historians (Ellis, Kearns Goodwin, Morris). His writing most closely resembles (in many, many ways) Walter Isaacson and David McCullough. They write similar types of biographies and seem to inhabit a similar clumped intellectual range.That said, while Meacham's style will never perfectly thrill academic historians, this biography is interesting and paced-well and shouldn't trouble too many presidential history buffs. Meacham has never had a real boat-tipping agenda with his biographies. He certainly wants to make Jefferson's life, times and experiences (told largely through secondary sources, anecdotes and at times brilliant story-telling) relevant to our current political and social setting. He did this wonderfully with FDR and Jackson and has continued his record with this excellent bio of Jefferson.
    • 3/5
      This is the second biography by Jon Meacham I've read -- the other on Andrew Jackson. He seems to have a penchant for taking interesting characters from American history and making them less so. Granted, both men have had many volumes written about them and it's hard to find a new spin, but Meacham stakes his claim to the mundane.In this book, we find out about Jefferson's many children who don't survive childhood. We are fascinated by details of his horticultural journal, riveted by the appearance of the cherry blossoms. But we do also hear about his fears on what the future might hold for the country -- and how Jefferson frequently thought he was the best hope for preservation of the nation as he perceived the founding to be.Meacham also focuses much on Jefferson's flaws. While he accomplished much greatness, he failed to show courage in an early opportunity to weaken the foundation of slavery. As governor of Virginia, he fled in advance of the British, and this too would plague him the rest of his career. Meacham's characterization of Jefferson on religion is rather all over the place -- on one hand suggests (as most agree) that religion had no place in government, but then mentions on multiple occasions that he thought Atheist was the worst possible trait for a politician. Jefferson's personal financers also seemed to be much in disarray, with his time in the presidency particularly costly to his personal fortunes.In the end, Meacham's achieves his dispassionate goal in characterizing Jefferson as a mere mortal and not the legendary giant of his inflated legacy. This is a very good point to make, however, I wish Meacham could find a more effective path. Household gossip might be appealing to the soap opera set, but not so engaging for the rest of us.
    • 5/5
      A recent best-seller of the greatest mind of America. Little new to the Jefferson scholar, but nice to know there is interest in this man. But for three or four others, Presidents have barely approached the leadership skills of Mr. Jefferson. Unlike recent ones, here was a President who didn't rely on committees to make decisions or speech writers to placate the electorate.
    • 4/5
      The complex life and the politics of the third President of the United States in a dramatic period in history are brought to the fore in Jon Meacham’s Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power. After nearly twenty years in which Jefferson’s reputation has taken a hit through both scientific revelations and new biographies of his fellow Founders, the pragmatic philosopher who still yearned to daydream comes into better light 200 years after his time in office.Meacham approached his book as a pure biography of Jefferson not a history of the times, which meant that only events that directly affected Jefferson or his immediately family were focused upon. Thus while Jefferson’s own story began in 1743, Meacham sets the stage with a family history that was also a history of colonial Virginia both politically and culturally. Throughout the next 500 pages, Meacham follows Jefferson in and out of Virginia with stops in Philadelphia, Paris, New York, and finally Washington D.C., but through everything a special focus was on how he developed his political acumen to achieve the vision he had for the United States in the world.Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings is discussed throughout the book when important moments in both their lives cross. While Hemings is not the focus of the book, the ‘relationship’ is interwoven by Meacham into Jefferson’s complicated thoughts on slavery that is more thoroughly detailed towards the end of the book and is some of the best analysis in the book. Yet, the focus on Jefferson’s political skill in comparison to his contemporaries and his time resulted in a fairly quick book to read (505 pages) that had extensive notes that could have added more to the body of the book and given the book more depth is the basic drawback of the book.Over the last decade, a new round of biographies of the Founding Fathers has brought praise and more attention to the actual human beings we think of when we hear their names. Jon Meacham’s Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power is a fascinating read of a man whose words and actions are both celebrated and controversial.
    • 2/5
      There have been few times when I turned the last page of a book and sighed with relief, but this was one of them, although I listened to the audio so it was the final word I heard that gave me such pause. My husband had been reading the print book and found it very slow, so we decided to listen to the audio version together. Although the reader was good, there was little he could do with such a drily written tome. It was well researched and there were abundant facts, too many at times, and that made the book tedious when it could have been alive if it was less bogged down with what felt like little known, unnecessary details that seemed included only to fill pages and pages as if there were a predetermined amount the author wished to write. At times it was so boring it was more like a sleeping pill! It was repetitive, and included too many incidental pieces of information like the coupling of his coming across a suicide victim (with a graphic description), with the purchase of a sheepdog. The relevance escaped me. Every famous personage of Jefferson’s time, that he knew or that knew of him, was mentioned in the book. Oftentimes the facts did not concern Jefferson, but them, instead. There was gossip, but not of the captivating kind. It was a potpourri of white noise, in some cases, just facts that could have been left out without altering the book’s value. I did not feel that Jefferson, the man, was developed that fully, but rather the facts about the people around him were stressed.So, if I had to rate the book, I would give it 4 stars for research, 3 stars for the reader and 2 stars for the book itself, which simply failed to ignite my interest. Whole sections of the book slipped by without me being aware of the message as the reader devolved into a monotone because there was no way to inspire the narrative with any expression. Often the book went off on a tangent and explored issues that distracted me. Jefferson was one of the Founding Fathers, he helped draft the Constitution, authored the Bill of Rights, signed the Declaration of Independence, was Secretary of state, vice president, and finally, a two term President of the United States. The man was definitely a lover of politics, a believer in state’s rights and the voice of the people. His image should have jumped off the pages with passion. A brilliant man of many talents, he was interested in horticulture, music, farming, hunting, science, libraries, and politics. He loved America and wanted to see it thrive. He wanted to see the people happy and less divisive and he worked toward that goal his entire career, however, he was arrogant and was not easily persuaded to change his mind once set on a course of action.He was a womanizer as a young man but when he finally married, at age 28, he was devoted to his wife and never married again after her death, honoring her wish that her children never have a step parent who cares nothing for them. Bereft, he takes his oldest child, Patsy, and travels to France where he becomes enamored with the country. Although he never married again, he was not celibate. He carried on a long term affair with Sally Hemmings, which began when she was just a young teenage slave of mixed race, who bore several of his children. Jefferson did not believe that slavery was moral, but nevertheless, he kept up the practice.He never openly admitted his affair, Sally Hemmings, but modern science has proven that the DNA of her offspring are his. I am not sure the world would look kindly on that behavior, or that relationship, today. Perhaps a real student of history, rather than an ordinary reader, would be more suited to this book, since they would be interested in every detail, rather than the overview I desired. Jefferson may have died, but the legacy of his efforts will live on forever, since they formed the foundation of the country.
    • 4/5
      Over the years I have read many a book about our founding fathers. Oddly enough, Thomas Jefferson wasn't among those many books...maybe a mention here and there. Meacham's book is a large volume that goes a long way towards rectifying my deficiencies in this area. I learned a great deal about the man and also many of his thoughts on the personalities and events of his times. A very cultured and intelligent man, a man who was central to so many of the events of our county's beginning, but also a shy man in many regards. Contradictions are almost a given when looking back over 200 years at a man's manner, but this is the man who wrote our Declaration of Independence, and it's not really crystal clear about how he felt about men being equal. Many have said that he meant it absolutely, any man equal to any man. Some say it was about landed gentlemen, not to include the rabble of Americans who owned no, or little land, And though he always owned slaves, it becomes abundantly clear that he felt them different. Sally Hemings and her "relatives" were set free in his will, but none of his other owned humans. Meacham makes a strong case that if Jefferson did believe that American slaves should be set free — at some time when it would not be disruptive to the nation — he assumed that they would want to return to Africa or wherever they came from, because it was inconceivable that the two races could live together in our country. Then there's the other half of the population, women. Every time I have ever read anything by Graham Swift, I wanted to read more. It's sad to report that presently the shelves of most of the East Bay's bookstores are quite lacking when it comes to new copies of any of his books. I'm still searching, but there's a ready solution nearby, pick this one up again and enjoy the whole thing over again, I'm sure to pick up more from a second reading. Books, oh, wonderful books.