"Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power" is author Jon Meacham'south 5th and nigh recent book, having been published in late 2012.  Meacham received the Pulitzer Prize for his 2008 biography of Andrew Jackson, and has also written nigh Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill too every bit the civil rights movement and the influence of religion in American politics.

"The Art of Ability" is past a significant margin the most pop and widely-read Jefferson biography available today.  Well-written and fast paced, Meacham's accounting of Jefferson's life is both entertaining and enjoyable, and requires niggling patience or fortitude on the part of the reader.  With about five hundred pages of text, Meacham'due south work seems to occupy a desirable infinite for modern biographies – information technology is comprehensive plenty to cover the most salient aspects of its field of study'due south life, but is not and then lengthy that it requires an exorbitant commitment of fourth dimension or attending.

In contrast to the exhaustive accounts of Jefferson's life authored by Dumas Malone and Merrill Peterson, Meacham's narrative most seems to dart through the viii decades of our tertiary president's life. Where Malone spends nearly twelve hundred pages describing Jefferson's terms as president, Meacham sets bated slightly fewer than ane hundred.  But that is part of the delight of this biography: in relatively few pages it manages to capture the essence of Jefferson, describing his core principles and philosophies, outlining his principal accomplishments and failures, and highlighting the contradictions he offers posterity.

Only following my five week journeying through Dumas Malone's series on Jefferson, I am reminded that brevity comes at a price.  Of import nuances in Jefferson's decision-making and complex threads within his life must be ignored in order to maintain the book's brisk pace.  Fundamental moments in Jefferson's presidency and the early life of our nation (such as the Embargo of 1807 and the Burr conspiracy) are simply afforded minimal attention.  But happily, such a step provides the book no opportunity to detect itself bogged downwards in unnecessary detail or to pursue trivial tangents.

What Meacham accomplishes brilliantly, in my view, is efficiently summarizing and synthesizing the various (and often contradictory) aspects of Jefferson'southward personality and offer his own view of why Jefferson acted – equally a patriarch, equally a scientist, as a politician and equally a friend – equally he did.  Though I establish many of the author'due south conclusions less one thousand and sweeping than they were presumably intended to be, Meacham'south perspective on Jefferson was nonetheless insightful and cogently argued.

"The Fine art of Power" has been criticized by some for portraying Jefferson in too flattering a light. I did not detect this error, and Meacham seems to harbor no greater sympathy for Jefferson than most biographers do with their subjects. Although Meacham does seem to adore Jefferson, his affection is not without qualification.

Others have pointed out that although Meacham seems to take been quite diligent in his grooming for writing this book (the endnotes and bibliography alone eat over ii hundred pages), it contains little that is truly new or revealing.  But Meacham's central thesis – that Jefferson was successful because he was simultaneously a philosopher and a politician, an idealist and a tactical strategist – seems to add a new dimension to a president who has been and so thoroughly explored and described.

Finally, I admit to thwarting in Meacham'southward treatment of the possible (perhaps fifty-fifty likely) human relationship between Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings.  Rather than describing the controversy which has pervaded this issue for over two hundred years, Meacham treats the topic every bit fully resolved. Only in the extensive endnotes does the reader observe a multi-page notation admitting to, and describing, the controversy.

In most means, however, "Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power" lived upward to the hype which has surrounded the book since its publication.  I found it easy, entertaining and enjoyable to read.  It required relatively little from me, but offered disproportionately greater rewards.  As a serious student of Jefferson, this would not be my first (or even second) cease on the lengthy journey to understanding Jefferson.  However, as an efficient, wonderfully descriptive and generally comprehensive introduction to Thomas Jefferson, I am unaware of better biography.

Overall Rating: 4½ stars