Thomas Jefferson: Author of America (Eminent Lives Series)
Author: Christopher Hitchens
In this unique biography of Thomas Jefferson, leading journalist and social critic Christopher Hitchens offers a startlingly new and provocative interpretation of our Founding Father. Situating Jefferson within the context of America's evolution and tracing his legacy over the past two hundred years, Hitchens brings the character of Jefferson to life as a man of his time and also as a symbolic figure beyond it.
Conflicted by power, Jefferson wrote 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. An eloquent writer, he was an awkward public speaker; a reluctant candidate, he left an indelible presidential legacy.
Jefferson's statesmanship enabled him to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase with France, doubling the size of the nation, and he authorized the Lewis and Clark expedition, opening up the American frontier for exploration and settlement. Hitchens also analyzes Jefferson's handling of the Barbary War, a lesser-known chapter of his political career, when his attempt to end the kidnapping and bribery of Americans by the Barbary states, and the subsequent war with Tripoli, led to the building of the U.S. navy and the fortification of America's reputation regarding national defense.
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-century Enlightenment, and, in its shadow, thedeformation of that struggle in the excesses of the French Revolution. This artful portrait of a formative figure and a turbulent era poses a challenge to anyone interested in American history -- or in the ambiguities of human nature.
The New York Times - Ted Widmer
To his credit, Hitchens does not gloss over Jefferson's dark side. There is a dutiful bit on Sally Hemings, and some thoughtful ruminations on the Haitian revolution, which revealed how counterrevolutionary Jefferson could be. Hitchens does not probe too deeply below the surface to explain these contradictions. But it's clear that perfect Palladian architecture was concealing some rather un-Palladian personal qualities.
Kirkus Reviews
A lucid, gently critical view of the great president and empire-builder and most literate of politicians. Barring the discovery of a trove of unknown documents, it's unlikely that anyone will soon find anything new to say on the matter of Thomas Jefferson, and Hitchens (Love, Poverty, and War, 2004, etc.) ventures no discoveries. Yet he has a pleasing way of juxtaposing the known facts with a more nuanced view of his subject than the portraits offered by critics such as David McCullough and worshippers such as Dumas Malone. At the outset, for instance, Hitchens recalls the well-worn datum that Jefferson died on the very same day as his long-time rival John Adams, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence; Hitchens adds a nice note to the discussion, though, by citing a letter Jefferson had written only days earlier, in which he thundered, "The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God." It complicates matters, Hitchens allows, that the "author of America" ignored a fifth of the population when making such pronouncements, though he well recognized the depravity of slavery, and that the same brilliant radical did his best to ensure that the lands of the Louisiana Purchase would be open to the slave trade-and that the minds of Southerners would not be tainted by schools that taught abolitionist "anti-Missourism." On many such controversial matters, Hitchens decides, Jefferson was motivated by what he thought to be the better interests of the Republic,though "in a smaller number, it is not difficult to read the promptings of personal self-interest."A politician driven by self-interest? The very thought in the matter of the master of Monticello tells us that we live in revisionist times. Hitchens's slender study complements several lives of Jefferson while displacing none, and it's well worth reading.
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Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith
Author: William F Buckley Jr
This is the story of one man's faith, told with unrivaled reflection and candor. William F. Buckley, Jr., was raised a Catholic. As the world plunged into war, and as social mores changed dramatically around him, Buckley's faith -- a most essential part of his make-up -- sustained him. In Nearer, My God, Buckley examines in searching detail the meaning of his faith, and how his life has been shaped and sustained by religious conviction. In highly personal terms, and with the wit and acuity for which he is justly renowned, Buckley discusses vital issues of Catholic doctrine and practice, and in so doing outlines for the reader both the nature of CathoLic faith and the essential role of religious belief in everyday life. In powerfully felt prose, he contributes provocatively and intelligently to the national interest in the nature of religion, the Church, and spiritual development. Nearer, My God is sure to appeal to all readers who have felt the stirrings of their own religious faith, and who want confirmation of their beliefs or who are seeking a guide to understanding their own souls. The renowned social and political commentator, William F. Buckley Jr., turns to a highly personal subject -- his faith. And he tells us the story of his life as a Catholic Christian. "Nearer, My God" is the most reflective, poignant, and searching of Bill Buckley's many books. In the opening chapters he relives his childhood, a loving, funny, nostalgic glimpse into pre-World War II America and England. He speaks about his religious experiences to a world that has changed dramatically. He is unafraid of revealing the most personal side of his faith. He describes, in his distinctive style, the intimacyof a trip to Lourdes, the impact on him of the searing account by Maria Valtorta of the Crucifixion, the ordination of his nephew into the priesthood, and gives a moving account of his mother's death. And there is humor, as Buckley gives a unique, hilarious view of a visit to the Vatican with Malcolm Muggeridge, Charlton Heston, Grace Kelly, and David Niven. Personal though this book is, Buckley has gone to others to examine new perspectives, putting together his own distinguished 'Forum' and leaning on the great literature of the past to illustrate his thinking on contemporary Catholic and Christian issues.
Robert Sirico
This is the most respectful and serious treatment of the sweep of Catholic theology coming from a lay person -- and published by a mainstream house -- that I have seen in many years. -- Detroit News
Wall Street Journal
The story of the abiding, sustaining faith of a true believer. . . As always, his thoughts are invigorating. . . . His doctrinal investigations reveal a religious temperament that is respectfully questioning but not doubtful. In this Mr. Buckley, despite his formidable intellect, is probably not so different from the average American churchgoer.
Baltimore Sun
You can rage and rail at his politics. People have been doing that since he wrote his first book after his graduation from Yale in 1950. You can find his manner insufferably mid-Atlantic. . . But it would be extraordinarily hard to cite anyone writing today in English who more prodigiously combines civility, prolificness and versatility than William F. Buckley, Jr . . . Breathtakingly powerful. . . The core of the book is a rollicking adventure story of the spirit, an elaborate trek around and about the lofty peaks of belief and conviction. . . . It is compelling, and profoundly informative. . . . It presents a fascinating, intelligent and deeply humane demonstration of belief in the face of the most rigorous intellectual tests and challenges. . . Buckley's book is wonderfully exciting -- whether you are a believer or a skeptic.
New York Times Book Review - Michael Wright
. . .[A]n appealing, straightforward account of a life marked, as many are, by unexpected successes and crushing failures.
Publishers Weekly
Buckley's account of a 1930s and '40s Catholic childhood spent at English boarding school and of a family life spent traveling Europe, living in huge homes peopled with butlers and beloved tutors will not whistle up similar memories for most Catholics of his, or any other, generation. Though the book includes autobiographical sections, this is less an autobiography than a collection of the author's opinions about things Catholic. Buckley and several prominent Catholic converts he consulted give the reader an informative and entertaining earful on everything from post-Vatican II liturgy, which Buckley finds aesthetically and theologically inferior, to the old Latin Massto and such current Catholic hot-button issues as the ordination of women and the use of contraceptives. An appendix presents a summary of the status of religious observances at a number of exclusive private secondary schools. This is a book by an author who eschews the merely trendy and speaks his own mind.
Michael Wright
. . .[A]n appealing, straightforward account of a life marked, as many are, by unexpected successes and crushing failures. -- The New York Times Book Review
New York Times Book Review
The author may be an imposing public intellectual but he's also a debout Christian, and this unusually personal essay is both a celebration of his lifelong Roman Catholicism and a doctrinal apologia for the church. "It is certain to provide many insights into the mind of a polished writer...and it will do much to explain how the hopefully changesless faith of a Catholic jubes with the politics of a late-20th-century American political conservative," William R. Everdell wrote here in 1997. - The New York Times Book Review, October 12, 1998 END
Kirkus Reviews
This eloquent spiritual 'autobiography' is, disappointingly, almost entirely about people other than Buckley, and about theology rather than faith. Buckley, erstwhile leader of the political right (founder and editor of the National Review) has departed from his usual subjects here. (Refreshingly, he humbly admits that this book took five years to write and that he was dissatisfied with the finished product, feeling that it lacked the fervor and narrative vigor usually associated with spiritual memoirs.) The book begins wonderfully: Buckley recounts his Catholic childhood in England and America, describing his devout parents, his privileged life of tutors, travels, and boarding schools. With his customary humor, he offers a teenager's view of Jesuit education; he also reveals a tender side, recounting his early prayers for his beloved mother's health (somewhat precarious after bearing 11 children). Yet the tenor of this chapter is in no way sustained throughout the book, which becomes an argumentative debate about the great issues of the Catholic Church. Even here, Buckley does not reveal much of himself, choosing instead to recount the intellectual struggles of adult friends who converted to Catholicism, among them Malcolm Muggeridge, Clare Boothe Luce, and Richard John Neuhaus. Buckley calls these pundits "the forum,' and he solicits their advice about many of the great theological debates: theodicy, the meaning of the crucifixion, papal infallibility ('the forum is divided on the issue of contraception," he tells us). Even the chapter entitled 'Experiencing Lourdes' is primarily a detached observer's discussion of the site's history and the Church's lengthy process forauthenticating miracles. One of the few hints we get about Buckley's own position is his restrained comment that 'the spiritual tonic is felt' by pilgrims at Lourdes. But despite the aloofness, Buckley remains, as ever, a witty and controversial commentator. Readers looking for meaty discussions of Catholic doctrine could do a lot worse.
What People Are Saying
William J. Bennett
A splendid story about a modern pilgrim's progress. . . erudite, engaging, poignant, and inspiring. -- Author of The Book of Virtues
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