Much has been written about Thomas Jefferson, the public man, and with good reason: he was the architect of our democracy and a visionary who expanded the nation’s physical boundaries to unimagined lengths. But the intensely private Jefferson joined in a conspiracy to make himself unknowable to the public.
Thomas Jefferson: Family Secrets is a new and unprecedented examination of the “intimate” Thomas Jefferson—from his return to Monticello after two terms as president until his death. Author William G. Hyland Jr. pierces Jefferson's private family veil and reveals little-known, poignant scenes of the relatives closest to Jefferson in his last years. Thomas Jefferson: Family Secrets is the first biography to uncover the dynamic relationship Jefferson had with his adult grandchildren.
With a novelist’s skill and a scholar’s meticulous detail,Hyland explores new ground in Jefferson’s autumn years as a waning patriarch, enduring physical illness and family strife. These glimpses of Jefferson’s inner character will change the way readers think about this American icon: as a flawed—but benevolent—man.
George Mason was a short, bookish man who was a friend and neighbor of athletic, broad-shouldered George Washington. Unlike Washington, Mason has been virtually forgotton by history. But this new biography of forgotten patriot George Mason makes a convincing case that Mason belongs in the pantheon of honored Founding Fathers. Trained in the law, Mason was also a farmer, philosopher, botanist, and musician. He was one of the architects of the Declaration of Independence, an author of the Bill of Rights, and one of the strongest proponents of religious liberty in American history. In fact, both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison may have been given undue credit for George Mason's own contributions to American democracy.
