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, the deformation 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.

Thomas Jefferson: Author of America (Eminent Lives)

Biographies & Memoirs

Hitchens, Christopher

Historical

Eminent Lives

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—a man conflicted by power who wrote the Declaration of Independence and acted as ambassador to France yet yearned for a quieter career in the Virginia legislature. A masterly writer, Jefferson was an awkward public speaker. A professed proponent of emancipation, he elided the issue of slavery from the Declaration of Independence and continued to own human property. A reluctant candidate, he left an indelible presidential legacy. With intelligence, insight, eloquence, and wit, Hitchens gives us an artful portrait of a complex, formative figure and his turbulent era.

Reference

Harper-perennial

Eminent Lives In American Political History A perfect gift for your favorite history huff, or for your own collection, this set from the acclaimed Eminent Lives series is a must for anyone interested in the story of America. George Washington: The Founding Father Celebrated journalist and historian Paul Johnson paints a vivid portrait of George Washington as a young entrepreneur, masterly commander-in-chief, patient Constitution maker, and wise president. Thomas Jefferson: Author of America Internationally renowned writer and political commentator Christopher Hitchens explores the life of Thomas Jefferson within the context of America's evolution, bringing him to life as both a man of his time and as a visionary who could see beyond it. Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero Legendary editor and bestselling author Michael Korda provides a shrewd but sympathetic portrait of Ulysses S. Grant's successes and failures -- both military and political -- as he guided America through a crucial juncture in its history.

American Presidents Eminent Lives Boxed Set: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grant

JOHNSON,Paul

KORDA, Michael

Leaders & Notable People

Vanity Fair's Hollywood

A fascinating collection of classic photographs, essays, and caricatures from the pages of Vanity Fair celebrates a century of glamour and power plays in Hollywood, from Garbo to Grant and beyond, featuring more than three hundred images from such acclaimed photographers as Cecil Beaton, Annie Leibovitz, Helmut Newton, Edward Steichen, and Bruce Weber. Reprint.

David Friend

Carter, Graydon

Arts & Literature

Studio

Explores the special relationship between the United States and Great Britain

Blood, Class, and Nostalgia: Anglo-American Ironies

History

Americas

Farrar. Straus and Giroux

In a compelling study of great-power misconduct, Christopher Hitchens examines the events leading up to the partition of Cyprus and its legacy. He argues that the intervention of four major foreign powers, Turkey, Greece, Britain and the United States, turned a local dispute into a major disaster. In a new preface for this 1997 edition, Hitchens reviews the implications of the Republic of Cyprus’s applications for European union membership, the escalating regional arms race between Greece and Turkey, and last year’s Greek Cypriot protests along the partition border.

Hostage to History: Cyprus from the Ottomans to Kissinger

Middle East

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

God is not Great How Religion Poisons Everything

Politics & Social Sciences

Philosophy

Twelve/Hachette Book Group

Over the course of his 60 years, Christopher Hitchens has been a citizen of both the United States and the United Kingdom. He has been both a socialist opposed to the war in Vietnam and a supporter of the U.S. war against Islamic extremism in Iraq. He has been both a foreign correspondent in some of the world's most dangerous places and a legendary bon vivant with an unquenchable thirst for alcohol and literature. He is a fervent atheist, raised as a Christian, by a mother whose Jewish heritage was not revealed to him until her suicide. In other words, Christopher Hitchens contains multitudes. He sees all sides of an argument. And he believes the personal is political. This is the story of his life, lived large.

Hitch-22: A Memoir

Twelve

Whether you're a lifelong believer, a devout atheist, or someone who remains uncertain about the role of religion in our lives, this insightful manifesto will engage you with its provocative ideas.With a close and studied reading of the major religious texts, Christopher Hitchens documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope's awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.In the tradition of Bertrand Russell's Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris's The End of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion.

God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

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