Jefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder

A National Book Award nominee in 1988, Jack McLaughlin’s biography tells the life of Thomas Jefferson as seen through the prism of his love affair with Monticello.

For over half a century, it was his consuming passion, his most serious amusement. With a sure command of sources and skilled intuitive understanding of Jefferson, McLaughlin crafts and uncommon portrait of builder and building alike. En route he tells us much about life in Virginia; about Monticello’s craftsmen and how they worked their materials; about slavery, class, and family; and, above all, about the multiplicity of domestic concerns that preoccupied this complex man. It is and engaging and incisive look at the eighteenth-century mind: systematic, rational, and curious, but also playful, comfort-loving, and amusing. Ultimately, it provides readers with great insight into daily life in Colonial and Federal America.

John McLaughlin is head of the Humanities Division of Clemson University and has contributed to such scholarly journals as Shakespeare Quarterly and Modern Drama. He is also the author of The Housebuilding Experience.