In this magnificent biography, Jon Meacham, the Pulitzer Prizewinning author of the bestsellers American Lionand Franklin and Winston,gives us an intimate portrait of Thomas Jefferson, the human being, the president, the politician, enabling us to understand Jefferson as never before. "A true triumph.In addition to being a brilliant biography, Thomas Jeffersonis a guide to the art of power . . . a fascinating look at how Jefferson wielded his driving desire for power and control." (Walter Isaacson) The father of the ideal of individual liberty, of the Louisiana Purchase, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and of the settling of the West, Jefferson recognized that the genius of humanity-and the genius of the new nation-lay in the possibility of progress, of discovering the undiscovered and seeking the unknown. Flawed, contradictory, elusive, Jefferson was at heart a man engaged in the wars of his times. "Jon Meacham understands Thomas Jefferson. . . . It is no small task to capture so capacious a life in one volume. Meacham has succeeded, giving us a rich presentation of our third president's life and times. This is an extraordinary work." (Annette Gordon-Reed) Jefferson's story resonates today, not least because he embodies an eternal drama: the struggle of a leadership of a nation to achieve greatness in a difficult and confounding world. "This is possibly the best single-volume biography of Jefferson ever written." (Gordon S. Wood)

Jon Meacham received the Pulitzer Prize for his 2008 biography of Andrew Jackson, American Lion. He is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, American Gospel, and Franklin and Winston. Meacham, who teaches at Vanderbilt University and at The University of the South, is a fellow of the Society of American Historians. He lives in Nashville and in Sewanee with his wife and children.