Product Description

This groundbreaking biography has been universally acclaimed as a landmark work on Thomas Jefferson's early and mature years. It follows Jefferson from birth through his inauguration as president in 1801. Author Alf J. Mapp sheds new light on Jefferson's career and private life and offers a portrait that defies simple sketches often offered by those who would either canonize or demonize this reluctant founding father.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1315550 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-26
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .2 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 504 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Scholars long have noted paradoxical aspects of Jefferson's life: a slaveholder, he wrote the "Declaration of Independence"; a traditionalist, he innovated in politics; an avowed humanist, he pursued a closet theology. In this excellent first installment of a projected two-volume study, Mapp sifts through legend, and sometimes erroneous scholarship, in search of Jefferson. Tracing his subject's life through the presidency, he finds that underneath his public roles (statesman, architect, writer, etc.) Jefferson was a passionate artist whose creative growth accounts for many of his paradoxical views. Making fine use of abundant recent scholarship, Mapp gives us a greater appreciation of this complex Virginian who came to embody the very tensions between tradition and experiment that are the "principal source of vitality in a society." Mapp's books include The Virginia Experiment. Photos not seen by PW. BOMC featured alternate.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Elegantly written and overflowing with evocative detail. . . . A splendid work of history and biography. (Book-Of-The-Month Club News )

Alf J. Mapp probably best expresses why Jefferson remains so fascinating more than 150 years after his death and why he remains a continual challenge for the biographer . . . [A] reassessment that is not only convincing but also readable and enthralling. (Richmond Times-Dispatch )

A life-recording, life-giving, entrancing and revealing study of a great American. (Richard Eberhart )

A monumental reassessment of Jefferson's character and impact. (Booklist )

In this fascinating account of Thomas Jefferson's many contradictions and complexities, master biographer Alf J. Mapp provides a compelling portrait of the great man and reveals why Jefferson was as much an enigma in his own times as he is in ours. (James P. Horn )

About the Author
Alf J. Mapp, Jr., is Eminent Scholar Emeritus at Old Dominion University and a nationally recognized scholar on Thomas Jefferson. His numerous publications include Faiths of Our Fathers: What America's Founding Fathers Really Believed, The Virginia Experiment, and Thomas Jefferson: Passionate Pilgrim.

Alf J. Mapp, Jr., is Eminent Scholar Emeritus at Old Dominion University and a nationally recognized scholar on Thomas Jefferson. His numerous publications include Faiths of Our Fathers: What America's Founding Fathers Really Believed, The Virginia Experiment, and Thomas Jefferson: Passionate Pilgrim.