Latest biography of thomas jefferson book

The effect was to create in the mind of the reader a better understanding of the man. Sam Strickland. Kidd skillfully charts a course through Jefferson's "moral universe" as he also goes over the major events of Jefferson's life. I was intrigued to learn about Jefferson's habits of wine consumption and his attachment to honor in connection to his habits of hospitality.

In short, this is an ambivalent book about a brilliant but highly flawed and double-minded man. As the writer of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson holds a large and mythical presence in our American imagination, especially as a great thinker. That makes an exploration of his inner life and spirituality worthwhile. There are some complicated intersections between the ideas of the Declaration and the ideas of Aristotle, Cicero, and Locke.

In the end, the surprises for me were many. He did not believe white men should rule as kings over other white men, but what about them ruling over people of color and women? Jefferson freed only two enslaved persons during his lifetime — he had hundreds -- five others were freed at his death. The rest of the people were sold at auction. While he wrote that slavery was evil, he continued to practice it throughout his life.

These truths seem self-evident. Chandler Collins. Yet another excellent work from Thomas Kidd! My first book from Kidd was his biography on Benjamin Franklin. Thomas Jefferson is uncannily similar to Franklin in his views on Christian doctrine and ethics. Jefferson read extensively in the field of science, ethics, and biblical studies. I am increasingly fascinated by the notion of how Christians can think in a metaphysical manner in such an anti-metaphysical age, and this biography showed me key prejudices against metaphysical reflection that have popped up in history.

Kidd is an excellent Christian historian who understands well the religious and theological questions and issues of his context, and engages the past in a way that shows the relevance of historic figures for our contemporary period. Kidd demonstrates great interest in American stances on slavery throughout his publications as he also carefully analyzes slavery in his history of American Baptists, and Kidd captures American history from the perspectives of many slaves in his general text on American history.

If only he allowed this ideal to influence his own practice of owning slaves. I would latest biography of thomas jefferson book recommend this book to anyone interested in American history or the religious views of the Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson is one of those figures who has had no shortage of biographies written about him. If individual human liberty is considered foundational for what is true and right, then conflict is inevitable when differing interests collide in the name of liberty.

Kidd writes a well latest biography of thomas jefferson book biography. He avoids the temptation toward hagiography that can ensnare many biographers of such a figure. He does not give Jefferson a pass on his moral failings, which are now well known. Neither does he unfairly demonize Jefferson, but lends appropriate empathy to the context in which he lived, worked, and struggled to architect a nation we now call home.

For readers unfamiliar with the life and thought of Jefferson, this book is a readable introduction that effectively summarizes the highlights of his life—childhood, education, drafting the Declaration of Independence, diplomacy in Paris, U. For the more informed Jefferson historian, this book provides a study especially dedicated to his moral and religious life in pages.

Tim Michiemo. Rather than writing a traditional thorough biography Thomas Kidd focuses on the contradictory religious thinking and living of Jefferson. Of particular interest was Kidd's dealing with Jefferson's relationship with slavery, particularly with his female slave Sally Hemmings, and with the Bible. Jefferson was incredibly intelligent and knew his Bible but rejected many of the core truths of the Christian faith, mainly the doctrine of the Trinity, the divinity of Jesus, and the infallibility of the Scriptures.

But at the same time, he saw himself as a model of true Christian virtue, and that teachings of the Bible held the greatest ethical teachings known to man, but were no more than that. As well Jefferson had a conflicted relationship with slavery, he at the same time wished for slavery to be abolished but did little to bring about its end in the founding of the United States.

All in all, Kidd's biography of Jefferson is an excellent book. It is not a thorough biography and I wish he had spent a bit more time on an analysis of Jefferson's thinking, but in the end, this was a satisfying book to read on an American founder's religious thinking. The book is a stark reminder of the genius but also the faults of our founders, and that they were incredibly religious and dealt with a large number of religious issues, but were not very Christian.

This is a great book and I think it's a great place to start learning about Thomas Jefferson. Jeremy Canipe. When I began studying early American history in earnest in college, I wasn't much of a Christian. I had the impression of Thomas Jefferson as a brilliant, deeply flawed man. Today, as I finished this marvelous biography focused on "Jefferson's moral universe" p.

Believers who didn't know Jefferson wrote to him, seeking his conversion. So too did friends and acquaintances. We even have evidence of one enslaved woman witnessing to this man who kept her in bondage. Yet Thomas Jefferson was stubbornly unmoved, imagining he'd be saved by his good deeds. Deeply, deeply tragic, unto eternity. Today's America recalls Jefferson's good deeds and ideals, as well as his bad even evil deeds in human terms.

Yet even more should the believer be motivated to keep on sharing the gospel of salvation in Christ alone. In the long run, nothing else matters like how you respond to Jesus. Peter Goodman. Kidd Yale, He always spent far more than he had and was forever in debt. The Virginia aristocrat regularly took large loans to buy expensive leatherbound books, French wines, artworks, scientific contraptions, or expansions to his mansion, either to keep up appearances among the elite or to soothe his yearnings.

This character flaw meant that hundreds of men were forced to stay in bondage after half a century of their master publicly claiming to despise slavery. Jefferson was a self-described Epicurean, subscribing to the ancient Greek philosophy that proclaimed the importance of minimizing pain and maximizing pleasure in life. However, Jefferson was far too sexually and financially irresponsible to indulge his pleasures responsibly.

He rightly highlights many of the clear moral failures of the man while portraying them in contrast with his most complicated realities — showing his genius as a political theorist, his deep capacity for charity towards religious minorities of the time namely Baptists and Lutheransand his curious fixation on the Bible and the philosophy of Christ.

Jefferson was a man of the enlightenment and science. He described himself fully as a materialist and advocated for a textual critic approach to Biblical scholarship that downplayed the role of spirits, miracles, and the historical relevancy of the Bible. But, he loved to learn and constantly sought out texts on the newest scientific news and discoveries, becoming a proficient and learned man in all areas of life.

He had strong opinions on classical literature, learned enough architecture to design his own mansion multiple timesand taught himself multiple languages. The highs of his idealism and the lows of his character are depicted tightly in tension, showing how they played into one another and affected the lives of those around him. Instead of renaming schools and toppling statues, I propose that we instead ponder perplexing, hard truths about the American founding.

We should steer clear of the excesses of either patriotic apologetics or iconoclastic destruction. The Founders, including Jefferson, were hardly saints. Thomas Jefferson lived a life that would make most modern people uncomfortable, and that has only increased the temptation to look at his life through narrow lenses. However, he is a man that does not fit comfortably into boxes.

He is proclaimed a hero by Christians and atheists alike, who selectively quote him to their benefit. The reality is that both of these statements are in some sense true. He was an idealist and a hypocrite, a Christian and an atheist, a violent rebel and a lover of tranquility, and a virtuous man who loved vice. Then, when Jefferson succeeded Henry as Governor, it turned adversarial.

So, Henry starts out as a hero of Jefferson and becomes a nemesis. Jeffersonian democracy has come to mean the belief that educated citizens should have their will enacted by their elected representatives. George Washington and Alexander Hamilton feared French revolutionary-style democracy would mean mob rule. Democrat and democracy did not become positive terms until the 19th century.

So, Jeffersonian democracy only grew into something Americans took to heart en masse over a period of decades. Ferling has written many books about the American Revolution; he has an encyclopedic knowledge of this period. His Jefferson and Hamilton is a portrait in partisanship, a blow-by-blow account of the ideological contest between men with divergent visions.

Jefferson feared centralization and a strong national government. Hamilton believes in the strong central government. Jefferson is a Francophile and Hamilton is an Anglophile. Both Jefferson and Hamilton were underhanded in advancing their agendas. Jefferson wrote a long letter to Washington, in Septembertrying to convince him that Hamilton was a monarchist intent on destroying the Republic.

When Washington sided with Hamilton, Jefferson retired to his plantation. Hamilton ultimately got the better of Jefferson—until It sounds grandiose.

Latest biography of thomas jefferson book

What Jefferson meant was that his election removed the dominant Federalist Party the Hamiltonians from power. So, Jefferson came into office with his political opposition on the decline. What makes this book the best life of Thomas Jefferson? John Boles has been a student of Jefferson and the early American Republic for his entire career. This is an all-encompassing, cradle-to-grave biography.

It takes a very strong look at Jefferson and slaverysomething the present generation of historians has been fathoming, because of the obvious paradox that this champion of human liberty took no appreciable action to remove slavery from his native Virginia. It brings into clear focus a complex human being. Madison and Jefferson had a personal and political partnership that lasted fifty years.

People think of Madison as the cerebral father of the Constitution, which is accurate, but he was also a power player in Congress, especially in the troubled s, when he held political seniority. Madison was instrumental in forging the anti-Hamilton political interest in Congress that ultimately backed Jefferson. There was nothing Jefferson did not consult Madison on.

The book identifies awkward truths that generations of patriotic mythmakers have avoided facing. We think of democracy as something open and above board, but both Madison and Jefferson came to believe that political progress was best arranged in secret. You show that Jefferson was a person for whom friendship had a public purpose, as well as a private purpose.

He drew so much from his partnership with Madison and in later life, from his correspondence with his former nemesis, John Adams. Well, he had many lifelong friendships, and he knew how to use them to his advantage. He used his pen to mold opinion, to build alliances, and to forge plans sometimes in coded letters or in small conclaves.