Review of Jon Meacham's Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power
February 2, 2023
When I began Meacham's book on Jefferson, I discovered that I was positive w/ Covid. As such, I spent the week reading Meacham's 505 pages. Right away there is a stark difference between what McCullough wrote about John Adams compared to what Meacham wrote about Jefferson.
Right from the beginning there is a difference in the tone and purpose. McCullough's book is a love letter to John Adams. A book dedicated to the idea that Adams has been forgotten about in the 222 years since he was president but also the relationship he had w/ Abigail.
Meacham's book is different. He is writing about Jefferson from a position of admiration, but also recognizing that Jefferson is a complicated figure. The book was released in 2012 when the (illegible cross-out) modern movement advocating for reparations were still thoughts in Ta-Nehisi Coates' notebook. The incredibly & refreshingly honest treatment of Jefferson's relationship w/ Sally Hemings is something you'd see out of 2023, not 2012.
I must say, however, I love Jon Meacham. The fact of the matter is though, I feel that I did not learn anything new on Jefferson than what McCullough wrote. This tracks, though. McCullough wrote his book originally as a joint biography of sorts on both Adams & Jefferson. That so much of John Adams focusses [sic] on Jefferson's correspondence and subsequent rejection of Adams during the latter's presidency highlights the inexcribable [sic] ties that the two had. This mean that though McCullough abandoned his efforts of a joint biography, the story of John Adams can't be told w/o significant knowledge of Jefferson.
For this fact, it appears that there is one major difference between the two books. McCullough appears to be writing a granular biography w/ exhaustive detail and primary source material going a mile deep and a mile wide while Meacham is writing a lengthy summary of Jefferson's life & career which goes an inch deep and a mile wide. It's the difference between an elective course on the American Revolution as compared to a survey course on U.S. History from 1620 to 1865. This is not a dig on Meacham; his goal was to write a book on Jefferson AND the Art of Power, McCullough wrote exclusively about Adams and all of the various minutiae of his life.
In the end, Meacham declared the point of the book was not to be an encyclopedic listing of all of Jefferson's life and it's not. Merely a "portrait" of the art of power.
Meacham's book deserves our praise for it's [sic] declaration and clear proclamation of the relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings. It does not necessarily offer the kind of historiographical review of why that matters, but maybe that's the historian in me talking.
Rating: 3.5 / 5
***
To read Ta-Nehisi Coates' article "The Case for Reparations" in the June 2014 issue of The Atlantic, click here. Inexplicably, this article and others were shamefully removed from the final version of the AP African-American Studies curriculum by The College Board. There is no reason why TCB has to give in to the demands of Gov. Ron DeSantis, yet, they are. What are they afraid of?
