Thomas Jefferson: President & Philosopher
by Jon Meacham
Hi! Do you know what you want to be when you grow up? Well, I want to be many different things. So did Thomas Jefferson. He wasn’t just a president – he also was an inventor, a gardener, an author, and many other things.
Thomas Jefferson was born into a very wealthy family. His father was a farmer, and so he owned slaves. As Thomas grew up, his writings and opinions helped make him Governor of Virginia. He also wrote the Declaration of Independence. He later went on to become president. However, like every great person, he had flaws. Like his father, he owned slaves. He also had a tendency to spend money that he didn’t have. Take a ride through Thomas Jefferson’s life, through the highs and the lows, and discover one of our Founding Fathers’ stories.
I did not like how the author just breezed over the fact that Jefferson had slaves. I feel that he should have emphasized more and dug a little deeper into his feelings about the slaves. In fact, I’m reading another book right now that does just that, and it’s very interesting!
I loved how this book gave me a deeper sense into who Jefferson truly was. It showed me things that I didn’t know before. For example, Jefferson was attacked by the British, even though he wasn’t a soldier in the Revolutionary War, because he wrote the Declaration of Independence.
This book reminded me of Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary. If you enjoyed that book, you’ll probably think that this one is interesting, too.
Will Jefferson go down in history as a great man? Or will his flaws overcome the good that he did? As I always say, read the book to find out!
A few helpful things I like to say about the books I read:
“Run and Get Mom” (how I describe the scariness factor – zero being not scary at all and five being majorly scary): 1
“Yucky-Lovey Stuff” (how I describe the romance factor – zero having no yucky-lovey parts in it and five having major yucky-lovey parts): 3
I give this book 5 wands.
I absolutely loved this book! I have had a bad perspective on Thomas Jefferson because of what I learned in the play Hamilton, where he was portrayed as Hamilton’s rival. But now, I can see what his life was like and his view of America.
