Synopses & Reviews
Acclaimed travel and adventure expert Anthony Brandt illuminates Jeffersons inspiring voice, restless imagination and penetrating intelligence, drawing on his voluminous travel diaries and personal correspondence to reveal the man himself and the world in which he played such a vital role. Powerfully written in Jeffersons own words, the book traces his journeys throughout Europe during his five-year residency in Paris, where he replaced Benjamin Franklin as U.S. Minister to France. His insightful, sophisticated impressions give readers a new perspective on European life in the 18th century.
Jeffersons eloquent observations of his tours through southern France, northern Italy, Germany and Holland shed light on those places in history and deepen our understanding of one of the most progressive, cosmopolitan men of his age. He knew most of the leading lights of the liberal French aristocracy, which gave him a marvelous perch from which to watch the French Revolution begin. He conferred with the Marquis de Lafayette on the French Declaration of the Rights of Man.
The letters trace how Jeffersons friendships with Adams and Abigail Adams developed; they reveal all that we really know of his love affair with the artist Maria Cosway; they show his interest in architecture developing and maturing, and they demonstrate his extraordinary skill in diplomacy. Brandt also addresses the question of whether Jeffersons possible sexual relationship with Sally Hemings began in Paris. “This is a man whose mind grew wings,” Brandt writes, presenting Jefferson as a man no longer possible to idolize, but impossible not to like.
Synopsis
Thomas Jefferson has inspired countless books that explore his brilliant career, his political philosophy, and his extraordinary accomplishments as an inspired and inspiring leader. Endlessly inquisitive, he was both a tireless writer and one of the most cosmopolitan men of his age. Yet there has never before been a collection of his reflections on his wide-ranging travels--until now.
Drawing on our third president's journals, personal correspondence, and other writing, this remarkable book uses Jefferson's own words to open a unique window on the man himself and the world in which he played so important a part. From his views on his native Virginia to his extensive tours of New England, he shows us America as it was in our earliest years as a nation. He records his extensive, sophisticated impressions of Europe, formed during a five-year sojourn in France, which included visits to northern Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and England. His correspondence with Lewis and Clark reveals not just a seasoned traveler's wisdom and a bottomless curiosity about the American wilderness, but his passionate explorer's wish that he could actually join their Corps of Discovery.
Arranged in chronological order, Jefferson's words are linked, clarified, and amplified by editor Anthony Brandt's commentary, which provides historic and cultural context to fill in the background of this panoramic vision by a passionate explorer of penetrating intelligence, whose far-sighted, restless imagination launched us on a national journey westward to the Pacific and destiny.
About the Author
Anthony Brandt is an expert on travel who has edited more than twenty National Geographic books, including the very successful Journals of Lewis and Clark. The book review editor of Adventure magazine, he is also a contributor to Esquire, GQ, The New York Times Sunday Magazine and other publications.