Thomas Jefferson
by Jon Meacham
The Art of Power
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
60%
Critic Reviews: 24
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
74%
Reader Ratings: 417
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Synopsis
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion presents a richly detailed portrait of the third President that considers his early life, roles as a Founding Father and considerable achievements as a master politician. (This book was previously listed in Forecast.) 250,000 first printing.
About Jon Meacham
Published: November 13, 2012 by
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs, History, Political & Social Sciences. Non-fiction. 800 pages
- All Critics: 24
- Positive: 16
- Negative: 8
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The New York Times | 2 Nov 2012
“Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power” guides us through the entire life, but without much color or drama. When Meacham offers revealing details — for instance illustrating Jefferson’s lifelong love of horses...the book comes alive, and Jefferson does too.
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The New York Times | 20 Nov 2012
Much of what Mr. Meacham has to say about Jefferson is too self-evident to be very illuminating. His strongest point, repeated frequently, is that Jefferson was both philosopher and politician...
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Entertainment Weekly | 14 Nov 2012
His is a big, grand, absorbing exploration of not just Jefferson and his role in history but also Jefferson the man, humanized as never before...
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Las Vegas Weekly | 21 Nov 2012
Meacham, former editor of Newsweek and now a contributing editor for Time, writes with a journalist’s ease, and the way he works the Hemings narrative into Jefferson’s both complicates and humanizes the man.
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Publishers Weekly | 16 Jul 2012
As fine a rendering of the nation’s third president as this book may be, it comes too close to idolization. Jefferson’s critics still have something valid to say, even if their voices here are stilled.
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New York Journal of Books | 13 Nov 2012
Biography at its best. . . . deserves the widest readership.
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Kirkus Reviews | 15 Aug 2012
An outstanding biography that reveals an overlooked steeliness at Jefferson’s core that accounts for so much of his political success.
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Baltimore City Paper | 2 Jan 2013
...Meacham fails his subtitle because the book fails to engage Jefferson as a nuts-and-bolts powerbroker...If the title of Meacham’s book had been “Thomas Jefferson: A Biography,” it would have been an unquestioned success.
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BC Books | 1 Jan 2013
Thomas Jefferson's practice of the art of power is nothing less than an object lesson for anyone who would aspire to affect the course of events in a democratic society.
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The Atlantic | 1 Nov 2012
Meacham seems unwilling to acknowledge that Jefferson exacerbated the slavery problem. He paints him as a noble leader who tried but failed to change the people's minds.
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The New Republic | 4 Dec 2012
But Meacham has chosen storytelling over analysis, offering up a genial but meandering narrative. There is some meat in the book, but finding it requires dexterity and doggedness...
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Tampa Bay Times | 2 Dec 2012
Even though I know quite a lot about Jefferson, I was repeatedly surprised by the fresh information Meacham brings to his work.
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Washington Post | 9 Nov 2012
...Meacham, despite his subtitle, accomplishes something more impressive than dissecting Jefferson’s political skills by explaining his greatness, a different task from chronicling a life, though he does that too — and handsomely.
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ChesCo Reader Book Reviews | 27 Nov 2012
I’ll just say that I enjoyed it and feel that I understand Jefferson much better than before.
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The Seattle Times | 25 Nov 2012
Meacham's writing is captivating; indeed, the book unfolds like a novel, with events cascading one after the other.
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The New York Times | 2 Nov 2012
Political biographies in the modern era often tell us less about their subjects than about the moment in which the books themselves are published.
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Denver Post | 18 Nov 2012
Meacham, despite his subtitle, accomplishes something more impressive than dissecting Jefferson's political skills by explaining his greatness, a different task from chronicling a life, though he does that, too — and handsomely.
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The New Republic | 4 Dec 2012
One regrets that a writer with his skills is so risk-averse, and does not wade into the fray; but Meacham merely shrugs that Jefferson has too many sides.
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City View | 26 Dec 2012
Jon Meacham has written an authoritative, detailed biography of Jefferson, illuminating the politics and concerns of that time and the abilities of Mr. Jefferson to bend his personal ideals to gain power in the political realm.
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The Daily South | 13 Nov 2012
Meacham’s Jefferson so relatable, instead of unreachable. The credit goes to Meacham’s serious chops.
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Review (Barnes & Noble) | 12 Nov 2012
It is a solemn, steadily admiring portrait of a hero.
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Uloop | 8 Dec 2012
Jon Meacham has successfully and bravely tackled the immense challenge of de-mythologizing a figure that has entered the ‘American Pantheon’ of civic demi-gods along with Washington and Lincoln.
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Library of Law and Liberty | 30 Dec 2012
Meacham’s biography fails, however, as a study of Jefferson and the art of power.
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The New York Times | 2 Nov 2012
As an Establishment man, Meacham ultimately celebrates the art of political compromise in service of moving the nation forward. It is an argument unlikely to meet with disapproval.
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