Hitchens knows the best Jefferson scholarship (and roundly mocks the worst) even tossing great accolades to Gore Vidal’s great novel Burr. (More on that, below.) I had little idea of the large international intrigue during the Jefferson’s presidency, as he shrewdly played off the interests of Great Britain, Spain, and France (think, Napoleon Bonaparte!) Mr. And he shows the excitement of the years leading up to the Revolution, and the serious debates that followed. I am simply unable to (I can blame it on the back pain and Vicodin, but I am sure even at my best I cannot) do justice to how much ground Hitchens covers, how insightful he is about Jefferson’s worldview-his involvement in the French Revolution, of course, his scientific ways, his scoffing at orthodox Christian faith. (Other fabulous match-ups in this series include historian Paul Johnson on George Washington and world religion scholar Karen Armstrong on Muhammad.)

Just under 200 smallish pages, it is in the lovely and respected Eminent Lives series. It is hard to underestimate the robust scholarship, wide reading and great learning that are presented in Mr. I refer to the contemporary Enlightenment modernist and religious skeptic Christopher Hitchens and his compact volume Thomas Jefferson: Author of America (HarperCollins $15.95.) This controversial, world-renowned scholar has done a book on Thomas Paine, too, which I am sure I will read soon. was the first nation ever to be created by intent, by an idea.) So between the jabs of pain I read a spectacular little biography of Thomas Jefferson, one I’d been meaning to study as it seemed one of those perfect matchings of author and subject. (I believe I first heard from Os Guinness the notion that the U.S. Or, more precisely, to the debates and characters and ideologies that raged in the late half of the 18th century and into the first decades of the 19th, giving shape to this great nation.

Even as the stupid little pop-pop-pops where driving me nuts, I took some patriotic inspiration and roared through two serious books pertinent to the rocket’s red glare. The neighborhood kid’s firecrackers and bottle rockets have finally calmed down-so annoying to a man like me, flat on his bed, from another painful back injury.

Hitchens on jefferson