In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson - Softcover

Cunningham Jr., Noble E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345353803 ISBN 13: 9780345353801

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1988

Synopsis

"A major contribution." Washington Post
The authoritative single-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson, perhaps the most significant figure in American history. He was a complex and compelling man: a fervent advocate of democracy who enjoyed the life of a southern aristocrat and owned slaves, a revolutionary who became president, a believer in states' rights who did much to further the power of the federal government. Drawing on the recent explosion of Jeffersonian scholarship and fresh readings of original sources, IN PURSUIT OF REASON is a monument to Jefferson that will endure for generations.

About this title

Review:

The life of Thomas Jefferson, demonstrably the most intellectual of America's presidents, has fascinated scholars for generations. A careful but elusive autobiographer, Jefferson left behind such a wealth of information about himself and his times that he has fueled hundreds of studies. Noble Cunningham's one-volume life is somewhat dispassionate, giving only a little sense of Jefferson's greatness, but it covers the essential episodes in the Founding Father's life with admirable balance and conciseness. Read this along with Joseph Ellis's American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, and you'll have a very good idea of why we continue to find the early statesman fascinating today. --Gregory MacNamee

From the Back Cover:

Cunningham follows Jefferson from his birth in what is now Albemarle County, Virginia, through his early education, and on to his student days at the College of William and Mary. Beginning his political career in the Virginia House of Burgesses at the age twenty-six in 1769, Jefferson displayed the brilliant mind and skillful pen that a few years later led the Continental Congress Of 1776 to rely on him to draft the Declaration Of Independence.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0345353803
• ISBN 13: 9780345353801
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 432