Thomas Jefferson

This concise biography follows Thomas Jefferson from Virginia planter and lawyer through the Declaration of Independence, wartime governorship, the Paris ministry, the State Department, the vice-presidency, and two terms as president. Bernstein treats the party struggles with Hamilton and Adams, the Louisiana Purchase, the Embargo, and the contradictions of a slaveholder who wrote about natural rights, including his household at Monticello and his relationship with Sally Hemings. Retirement chapters cover debt, the founding of the University of Virginia, and the late correspondence with Adams. The book is a political life of one founder, not a general history of the early republic.

Quarter bound in blue cloth with picture printed paper sides. Dark brown slipcase.