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Burstein, Andrew Jefferson's Secrets: Death and Desire at Monticello
Basic Books 2005 0465008127 / 9780465008124 Hardcover Fine Near fine Hardcover
New. Fine in publisher's quarter bound boards in near fine, slightly rubbed dust jacket. Available in our UK premises for prompt dispatch worldwide.Starred Review. Perhaps more than any other founding father, the author of the Declaration of Independence has been judged harshly by posterity for being a slaveholder and having a slave concubine. How did Jefferson assess himself at his life's end? Drawing on Jefferson's postpresidential papers, which Burstein says have been little studied, the University of Tulsa history professor (The Passion of Andrew Jackson, etc.) sheds new light on our most enigmatic and interesting founding father from a unique perspective. He presents a vivid portrait of Thomas Jefferson as an old man looking back on life, preparing for death and dwelling on both his successes and his sins.During Jefferson's dotage, as his finances collapsed around him, the old patriot had to confront not only the results of his lifelong fiscal excesses but also the fruits of other excesses. In his last years, Jefferson "permitted" two of his four children by the black slave Sally Hemings--both of whom could pass for white--to "run away." In his will he freed the remaining two, Madison and Eston Hemings, while at the same time making a request (granted) that the Virginia legislature permit them to remain in the state after emancipation--something not normally done. Jefferson had once written that "[t]he only exact testimony of a man is his actions." In his final years, he tangled with the philosophical and religious implications of his life as a holder of slaves and master of a slave concubine. In some moods, Jefferson hoped for God and an afterlife. In others, perhaps dreading what the Almighty might have to say to him, he described human existence as a brief space "between two darknesses."This splendid book shows old Jefferson standing at the precipice, taking stock and perhaps judging himself more harshly than any God might. This is a deeply moving portrait of the aged Jefferson's body, mind and spirit that takes the measure, as Burstein says, of the full range of the founder's imagination. Illus. not seen by PW. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist: John Adams referred to Thomas Jefferson, who was both his friend and political opponent, as a "shadow man." Our most enigmatic founder seems tantalizingly out of reach for those trying to understand his personality. Historian Burstein, a noted Jefferson scholar, focuses on the last decade of Jefferson's life to glean Jefferson's thoughts regarding topics as varied as religion, medical science, sexual relations, and, of course, politics. Like the latter stages of Jefferson's life, this account is tinged with sadness. Jefferson was tortured by declining health, family tragedies, and creditors who were constantly nipping at his heels. Still, as his voluminous correspondence makes clear, Jefferson's optimism for both humanity and the American experiment never faltered. Burstein utilizes Jefferson's writings as well as recollections by friends and family members that have generally been neglected by recent scholars. While Jefferson remains an elusive target, one is left with this inspiring analysis of a life superbly lived. Jay Freeman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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7.05 GBP
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Andrew Burstein The Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving
Basic Books 2007-02-08 0465008534 / 9780465008537 Hardcover Fine Fine Hardcover
New. Fine in publisher's quarter bound boards in like dust jacket. Available in our UK premises for prompt dispatch worldwide.University of Tulsa's Burstein, best known for his studies of Thomas Jefferson (Jefferson's Secrets), offers a serviceable biography of another early American celebrity: Washington Irving, whom Burstein credits with creating a national literature and with helping persuade Europeans that America wasn't full of simpletons and savages. Burstein speculates about Irving's inner life: was he gay? Possibly, but Burstein thinks it more likely the writer was simply a bachelor, a respectable role in his time and place. Burstein also helpfully recreates early 19th-century New York, a port city with a population in the tens of thousands. He offers judicious literary analysis, teasing out the roles history and memory play in Irving's work. But Burstein's most significant contribution comes in situating Irving's literary work in its larger social and political context. For example, he argues that Irving's satirical and immensely popular A History of New York (1809)--better known as Knickerbocker's History--established the city as a place with a literary future, and he reads Rip Van Winkle as a symbol of early 19th-century America's energetic, pioneering, adolescent charm. Overall, this is an insightful if not inspiring addition to the cultural history of pre-Civil War America. 16 pages of b&w photos. (Mar.) Copyright
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8.34 GBP
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