Being Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History

Historian Burstein (Longing for Connection) aims in this probing biography to unearth the inner life of America’s most mercurial founder, including how he made sense of his contradictory positions on slavery and democracy. To do so, Burstein explores the Age of Enlightenment’s unique emotional landscape—where sensitivity and sensuality were valued but the barrier between public and private life was rigidly maintained—and examines how Jefferson, an easily irritated but loftily minded introvert, fit into this milieu. In a narrative studded with keen insights, Burstein offers notes on Jefferson’s flirting style with sexually empowered French aristocratic women (mostly jokey, belying intimidation) and juxtaposes his passionate vendettas against his fellow politicians with the icy condescension of his theorizing about the “natural” hierarchy of the races. Along the way, a complex portrait emerges of a man who both longed for control of his immediate environment and constantly pushed himself into the wider world, where control was impossible and frustrations abounded. Burstein ties this to everything from Jefferson’s decision to take teenage Sally Hemings as a “concubine” rather than remarry—evidence, Burstein suggests, of Jefferson’s fear of the loss of control stemming from his wife’s death—to his vision for America as a nation of lightly governed freeholders. It makes for immersive account of both the man and his age. (Jan.)