The Real Thomas Jefferson (American Classic Series)

This, along with the companion biographies of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, was one of my first forays into rekindling my appetite for reading. The American Classics series are excellent for readers who desire a lot of well researched documentation, comprehensive biographies that cover the subject generally. What makes the American Classics series so accommodating to new or less agile readers is the writing; I believe these books would be easy enough for a adolescent to enjoy but an adult to appreciate. I cannot stress enough: at the time I picked up these books, my reading legerity was lacking to the point I would quickly lose interest in a long magazine article. The text of this book is over 600 pages, yet I read it in a show more week with great comprehension. show less

An excellent book. Beautiful detail about both Jefferson's personal and political life.
Favorite quotes:

"It is a part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate, to surmount every difficulty by reason and contrivance."

From the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798:
"Resolved, that the several states composting the United States of America are not united on the principle of unlimited submission to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto, they constituted a general government for special purposes [and:] delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each state to itself the residuary mass of right to their own show more self-government; and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void and of no force." show less

very interesting material