In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Cunningham, Jr., Noble E.

Published by Ballantine Books, New York, 1988

About this Item

Fine condition color illustrated softcover wraps. Includes Preface and Acknowledgments; Notes; Bibliographical Note; Index and About the Author. Illustrated with black and white portraits. "A concise, comprehensive one -volume biography of one of the greatest Americans who ever lived. A major contribution." - Washington Post. "[The author's] summary effort to restore the author of our Declaration of Independence to a place of honored visibility.has succeeded. We see here a post-Renaissance genius at work: a brilliant architect, a subtle and humane statesman and, above all, a leader who believed in 'the sufficiency of reason for the care of human affairs." - The New York Times Book Review. "In Pursuit of Reason fills a longstanding need of interested readers, students, and scholars for an authoritative single-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson. Although these have been important works on Jefferson before, their very massiveness has proven daunting. Now [the author], one of America's foremost Jefferson scholars, has produced an absolutely first-rate biography that is as concise as it is complete. Thomas Jefferson - American disciple of the Age of Reason, author of the Declaration of Independence, third president of the United States, builder of Monticello, founder of the University of Virginia - is perhaps the most significant figure in American history. He was a complex and compelling man: a fervent advocate of democracy who enjoyed many of the privileges of an aristocrat, a revolutionary who became president, and advocate of traditional agrarian values who more than doubled the boundaries and the potentialities of America with the vast Louisiana Purchase. Cunningham examines the interplay between Jefferson's career and philosophy, his action as leader, and his thought as expressed in some of the finest American prose. Here is the public figure so vital to the founding of our nation and the private man who presided from his beloved Monticello over a large family of children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Drawing on the recent explosion of scholarship on Jefferson and providing fresh new readings of original sources, [the book] is a superb, approachable monument to Jefferson that will endure for generations.".

Seller Inventory # 001838

Bibliographic Details

• Title: In Pursuit of Reason: The Life of Thomas Jefferson [FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]
• Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York
• Publication Date: 1988
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Fine