Todd Gipstein/National Geographic - Getty Images This week in The New York Times Book Review, Jill Abramson reviews Jon Meacham's “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power,†and says that Mr. Meacham “wisely has chosen to look at Jefferson through a political lens, assessing how he balanced his ideals with pragmatism while also bending others to his will.†Ms. Abramson writes:
Meacham is one of several journalists turned historians who belong to what might be called the Flawed Giant School. Other members include Walter Isaacson (on Benjamin Franklin), Evan Thomas (on Robert F. Kennedy and Dwight Eisenhower) and Jonathan Alter (on Roosevelt and the New Deal). Books in this mode usually present their subjects as figures of heroic grandeur despite all-too-human shortcomings - and so, again, speak directly to the current moment, with its diminished faith in government and in the nation's elected leaders. Few are better suited to this uplifting task than Meacham. A former editor of Newswe ek, he has spent his career in the bosom of the Washington political and New York media establishments. His highly readable biographies are well researched, drawing on new anecdotal material and up-to-date historiographical interpretations (thereby satisfying both journalistic and scholarly expectation).
On this week's podcast, Mr. Meacham discusses his new book; Pamela Paul talks about the year's best illustrated children's books; Sam Tanenhaus explains the prescient politics of John Updike's “Rabbit Reduxâ€; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Sam Tanenhaus is the host.
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