Monticello

May 15, 1987
Langhorne's study turns on Thomas Jefferson's relations with his family, especially with his daughters Maria and Martha, and his son-in-law Thomas Randolph, Martha's husband. In the background and brought into relief throughout are the family slaves and the design and construction of Monticello and its grounds. Langhorne presents a private Jefferson who rings true: a "born optimist," a poor manager of his financial affairs, intensely involved with his family, and, regarding his slaveholding, "inexorably bound to the system he both feared and hated." Those familiar with Fawn Brodie's Thomas Jefferson: an intimate history (1974) will here encounter a more sympathetic perspective, without psychological conjectures. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries. Roy H. Tryon, Delaware State Archives, Dover

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