Thomas Jefferson by R. B. Bernstein

In Thomas Jefferson, author R. B. Bernstein offers the definitive short biography of this revered American. Included are all of Jefferson's triumphs, contradictions, and failings, from his luxurious (and debt-burdened) life as a Virginia gentleman to his passionate belief in democracy. Jefferson was multifaceted--an architect, inventor, writer, diplomat, propagandist, planter, party leader--and Bernstein explores all these roles even as he illuminates Jefferson's central place in the American enlightenment, that "revolution of ideas" that did so much to create the nation we know today. Paperback, 253 pages.