Thomas Jefferson: Author of America (Eminent Lives)
by Christopher Hitchens
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Book Summary Information
Author: Christopher HitchensEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2005-05-31
ISBN: 0060598964
Number of pages: 208
Publisher: Eminent Lives
Book Reviews of Thomas Jefferson: Author of America (Eminent Lives)
Book Review: History is a tragedy, not a morality tale
Summary: 4 Stars
If you need an extremely well-written, concise, sympathetic, balanced and reasonably complete introduction to Thomas Jefferson, Hitchens has produced just the thing. Hitchens does particularly well where Thomas Jefferson's views mesh with his own - namely on religion and the disestablishment thereof. Hitchens does not hide Jefferson's many flaws but rather emphasises that first and foremost Jefferson was a man, not some disembodied icon. What others might see as Jefferson's hypocrasies, Hitchens sees as inconsistiencies or as a willingness to be opportunistic. Hitchens lauds Jefferson's victory in separating church and state and in establishing the United States as a continental force.
Hitchens sees Jefferson as an extraordinarily talented writer and a man attuned to the longer view. Less clear is Jefferson's failure to grasp the realities of the emergent US economy and his personal stakes in a slave-fueled plantation economy. The brevity of the book (and perhaps Hitchens own blind spots) leaves this subject and Jefferson's own profligacy largely unexplored.
The great tragedy Hitchens highlights is that for all that Jefferson transcended in helping to establish a republic based on human rights and natural law, he was unable to or chose not to deal with the wolf of slavery. He sees Jefferson's handling of slavery issues, especially when he was in a position to do something about it, as a deep flaw.
Overall, I think Hitchens is too forgiving of Jefferson's flaws as a person, a politician and as an aristocrat but he leaves the reader plenty of room to have a conversation about this intriguing and paradoxical man.
One aside: Hitchens uses none of his famous acid writing on Jefferson but he does remind us of what he can do when he lets himself go. The most obvious victim is Dumas Malone and his 6 volume biography of Jefferson. Hitchens describes (p181) Jefferson's creation of a philosophic bible, as Jefferson's "profane exercise of cutting up the holy book with a razor blade and throwing away all the superfluous, ridiculous, and devotional parts." Then adds paranthetically, "This is an exercise that I have long wanted to repeat in the case of the multivolume hagiography of Jefferson himself, penned so laboriously by Dumas Malone." I guess Hitchens simply couldn't resist.
There is no bibliography or index, but the acknowledgement provides a good summary of Hitchens' sources.
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