Author(s): Christopher Hitchens

Biography & Memoir

An eloquent writer, Thomas Jefferson was an awkward public speaker and a reluctant candidate; nevertheless he left an indelible presidential legacy. He penned the Declaration of Independence and acted as Minister to France yet yearned for a quieter career in the Virginia legislature. Predicting that slavery would shape the future of America's development, this professed proponent of emancipation elided the issue in the Declaration and continued to own human property.

In the background of this sophisticated analysis is a large historical drama: the fledgling nation's struggle for independence, formed in the crucible of the eighteenth