Most Blessed of the Patriarchs ─ Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination

Hailed by critics and embraced by readers, “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs” is one of the richest accounts of our third president. Following the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Hemingses of Monticello, Annette Gordon-Reed has teamed with Peter S. Onuf to present a provocative and absorbing character study, “a fresh and layered analysis” (Peter Baker, New York Times Book Review) that reveals Thomas Jefferson as “a dynamic, complex and oftentimes contradictory human being” (Walton Muyumba, Chicago Tribune). Lauded as the most articulate voice of American freedom and equality, even as he held people—including his own family—in bondage, Jefferson is variably described as a hypocrite, an atheist, or a simple-minded proponent of limited government. Gordon-Reed and Onuf fundamentally challenge much of what we thought we knew and, through their painstaking research and vivid prose, create a portrait of Jefferson as he might have painted himself, one “comprised of equal parts sun and shadow” (Jane Kamensky).