The Road to Monticello: The Life and Mind of Thomas Jefferson | 
 enlarge | Author: Kevin J. Hayes
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $34.95
Buy New: $19.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 9810
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 752
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.6
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.6 x 1.9
ISBN: 0195307585
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.46092
EAN: 9780195307580
ASIN: 0195307585
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 3.5 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20081130225628T
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Product Description
Thomas Jefferson was an avid book-collector, a voracious reader, and a gifted writer--a man who prided himself on his knowledge of classical and modern languages and whose marginal annotations include quotations from Euripides, Herodotus, and Milton. And yet there has never been a literary life of our most literary president.
In The Road to Monticello, Kevin J. Hayes fills this important gap by offering a lively account of Jefferson's spiritual and intellectual development, focusing on the books and ideas that exerted the most profound influence on him. Moving chronologically through Jefferson's life, Hayes reveals the full range and depth of Jefferson's literary passions, from the popular "small books" sold by traveling chapmen, such as The History of Tom Thumb, which enthralled him as a child; to his lifelong love of Aesop's Fables and Robinson Crusoe; his engagement with Horace, Ovid, Virgil and other writers of classical antiquity; and his deep affinity with the melancholy verse of Ossian, the legendary third-century Gaelic warrior-poet. Drawing on Jefferson's letters, journals, and commonplace books, Hayes offers a wealth of new scholarship on the print culture of colonial America, reveals an intimate portrait of Jefferson's activities beyond the political chamber, and reconstructs the president's investigations in such different fields of knowledge as law, history, philosophy and natural science. Most importantly, Hayes uncovers the ideas and exchanges which informed the thinking of America's first great intellectual and shows how his lifelong pursuit of knowledge culminated in the formation of a public offering, the "academic village" which became UVA, and his more private retreat at Monticello.
Gracefully written and painstakingly researched, The Road to Monticello provides an invaluable look at Jefferson's intellectual and literary life, uncovering the roots of some of the most important--and influential--ideas that have informed American history.
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An Innovative Intellectual Biography of Jefferson October 24, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a somewhat unique approach to writing an intellectual biography of Thomas Jefferson: "...to study what Thomas Jefferson read and what he wrote to show how the written word shaped his life." Given Jefferson's absolute passion for books ("I cannot live without books") as reflected in his extensive libraries, this is quite an undertaking. Not only has the author reviewed TJ's correspondence, books, and records, he also has scoured biographies, books about TJ at Monticello, and a variety of original sources (including TJ's own notations in his surviving books) to paint probably the most complete picture we will ever have of Jefferson's intellectual interests and development. It is a lengthy work, some 650 pages of text, a further 54 pages of invaluable detailed notes, and a helpful "Essay on Sources." So it takes a while to read it, but the time investment is well justified by the book's contributions.
But the book is about more than just TJ, as if that were not enough. The reader learns, for example, a great deal about the "book culture" of the colonial and early national period, as well as the general intellectual life. But Jefferson himself is the dominant focus. The author follows a chronological approach, so that those familiar with TJ's life can slot this new knowledge into their existing frameworks, while novices learn a great deal about TJ's life generally. I think the book well illustrates the connections between Jefferson's intellectual interests and his political positions and philosophical orientation. I found the extent of his foreign-language reading quite interesting, as well as his interest in just about everything that was going on, from the weather, to Indians, to archeology, to all manner of scientific research, farming and gardening, winemaking, and the list just goes on and on. The author's discussion of Jefferson's views on slavery and how his intellectual interests contributed to developing his thoughts on this topic is particularly helpful. The reader also learns much more about Jefferson the author, as all his books (yes, there are more than just the "Notes on the State of Virginia") are discussed in detail. Moreover, we gain a valuable insight into not only how TJ made some friendships, but how his inner circle interacted with one another, often on the basis of shared intellectual interests.
The book is extremely thorough, so sometimes the reader can get buried in an ocean of titles and authors--but this abundance is one reason the book is so rich in contributions. The author is an extremely prolific English professor from Oklahoma with whom I was not acquainted previously. However, to paraphrase what Gore Vidal once said re Jefferson: if you are interested in TJ, you must be with Kevin J. Hayes and this extraordinary study.
Highest Recommendation September 9, 2008
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is a splendid read. The research is impressive; the book is well written and a pleasure to read. Hayes offers a fresh, fascinating perspective that has enhanced my admiration of Jefferson and my own love of books. I pre-ordered his forthcoming book on Patrick Henry before I finished this one.
The Bookman out of Virginia July 27, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
It is hard to think of a better subject than Thomas Jefferson for such a fine extended literary biography as the one at hand. Here the scholar Kevin Hayes nicely and authoritatively relates how books and the love of learning formed the central core to the elusive life that was Mr. Jefferson's, one of the most important political, diplomatic, and educational figures in our nation's history.
Anyone interested in the formation of great personal and public libraries; literature and learning in early America; the personal life and travels of Thomas Jefferson and his great literary works (e.g., The Declaration of Independence) should buy and read this deeply informative and finely crafted book.
Potential readers should be aware this is not a detailed political history, nor is it one that explores Mr. Jefferson's complex attitudes and actions concerning slavery. Other books should be consulted for better descriptions of such important points as the political/economic differences between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton and the role played by Sally Hemings in Mr. Jefferson's home life.
Jefferson from the neck up July 2, 2008
38 out of 38 found this review helpful
JFK once held a state dinner for all American-born Nobel laureates. At one point during the festivities, he rose to offer a toast, remarking that there hadn't been so much talent gathered in the White House dining room since Thomas Jefferson ate there alone.
The laureates took the unintended slight with good grace. How could they have not? Thomas Jefferson was without doubt our most cerebral president. He may not have had the academic discipline of a Woodrow Wilson or the native wisdom of a Lincoln. But as we all know, and as Kevin Hayes documents in impressive detail in his splendid Road to Monticello, there's never been a more bookish president, nor a wider-read one, than Jefferson.
Hayes has written an old-style (I mean this as a compliment, by the way) intellectual biography. Jefferson's public career is mentioned in passing, but what Hayes is primarily concerned to do is chart the course of Jefferson's thought from his earliest to his final days by charting his reading. Who were the authors that especially impressed him? That he found especially wanting? What connections between his diverse readings did he make? What were the blindspots and lacunae in his thinking and reading? Why did he select the quotes he jotted down in his Commonplace Books? In short, what Hayes wants to do in The Road to Monticello is get a clearer picture of Jefferson the thinker from examining the books he thought about.
Jefferson's erudition is impressive. He read in six languages (including Anglo-Saxon), and was interested in Asian, Indian, and Semetic languages. And he read everything: law, politics, philosophy, geography, history, the occasional theology tome, anthropology, science, music, fiction, poetry, agronomy, cookbooks. His curiosity was boundless, and never abated as the years rolled on. He cross-referenced his readings with marginalia: his law books, for example, frequently contain scribbled references to Greek tragedians and historians. He collected books avidly, during a time when book collecting wasn't all that easy. Hayes tells us that whenever Jefferson rolled into a city, he quickly made his way to the bookshops. By the end of his life, he'd amassed one of the finest collections in the early Republic, which (characteristically) he catalogued according to a system of his own invention. (Hayes' description of it is fascinating, especially for those of us who know a little about Francis Bacon.)
But Jefferson was also an extremely secretive man, and even though Hayes provides us with an excellent account of the cerebral food that fed Jefferson's intellect, I closed the book feeling that Jefferson the man still remained more enigmatic than not. Hayes tells us what Jefferson thought about, but what made him tick remains elusive. This isn't Hayes' failure so much as Jefferson's refusal to leave no personal memoirs, no tormented self-examinations in his Commonplace Books, and very few epistolary revelations. Ultimately, then, Hayes helps us penetrate the mind of Jefferson. But the third president's soul remains unexplored, as it probably always will.
Highly recommended. A genuine treat.
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