Jefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder

A National Book Award nominee in 1988 Jack McLaughlins biography tells the life of Thomas Jefferson as seen through the prism of his love affair with Monticello.. For over half a century it was his consuming passion his most serious amusement. With a sure command of sources and skilled intuitive understanding of Jefferson McLaughlin crafts and uncommon portrait of builder and building alike. En route he tells us much about life in Virginia; about Monticellos craftsmen and how they worked their materials; about slavery class and family; and above all about the multiplicity of domestic concerns that preoccupied this complex man. It is and engaging and incisive look at the eighteenth-century mind: systematic rational and curious but also playful comfort-loving and amusing. Ultimately it provides readers with great insight into daily life in Colonial and Federal America.