Jefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder

by Jack McLaughlin

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 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.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, American History, Presidents, American Revolution, Biography Memoir

496 pages, Paperback

First published May 15, 1988

Reviews

[Breck Baumann · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding view into the domestic mind of Thomas Jefferson, specifically his quirky genius as architect and "owner-builder" as McLaughlin states throughout the narrative. With pages littered with illustrations of Monticello's designs and eccentrics—as well as Jefferson's own notes and drawings—the reader is given a profound chronological timespan. From the very idea of Monticello rising from the ashes of Shadwell (Jefferson's first home), to its early foundations and upgrades while Jefferson was abroad in France, and on down to the very tools, plasters, paints, British deserters that worked as hired hands, slaves and their own stories, and family life and lore that would forever live on even after his death. Those fascinated with eighteenth-century homes and furnishings, Thomas Jefferson, plantation life (and its tragedies), and/or an outlook of the private life of a Founding Father will certainly treasure McLaughlin's brilliant biography of Monticello.

[David Eppenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

This will probably be a shorter than usual review for me. I fell on ice recently and broke my right wrist requiring a surgical repair. My left hand is partially impaired by a genetic condition so typing has become rather challenging. I may return to expand this review at a later date but I offer no promises. Now let’s see how long I can go before giving out.

Those of you that have read my reviews already know I have no great regard for TJ. I consider him our first sleazy president; an aristocrat pretending to be a man of the people who always had others do his political dirty work. This book hasn’t altered my opinion but it has added insight into the character of TJ not offered in any other history that I’ve read and this earned the book its fourth star. While this book is supposed to be about the building of TJ’s Monticello and indeed it is it is also a view into the domestic life of TJ and into the person that is revealed through his artistic expression.

TJ was an incredibly private person though also extremely social and entertaining. He had a public face and like many people he also had a private face, an at home face but even this part of him was guarded. What is revealed by this author is what the hidden face of TJ was and he does this by giving the reader a history of TJ’s efforts in building his home and filling it with his family, his friends, and his guests both invited and uninvited. You will certainly get a day by day, blow by blow history of the building of this home as well as its demolition and rebuilding along with the innovations experimented with along the way. All during this process you will learn about TJ, his habits, his quirks, his values, and his passions. While I do not agree with TJ’s politics or his notions of social order I have always admired his architecture and his inventiveness. Monticello and UVa are monuments to this side of TJ and this book will assist the reader in understanding that part of this man that he kept hidden. Enjoy.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can remember way back when I first visited Monticello. I was 14 years old and an apparently impressionable youth but I remember touring Thomas Jefferson’s house and becoming completely fascinated with all things Jeffersonian. Not only did the house impress my young mind but the stories of how Jefferson slowly built it over decades, incorporating all sorts of cool features that he had learned on his travels to Europe and invented himself was just incredible.

So last month I revisited Monticello for the first time in more decades than I care to count and obviously viewed it from mature adult eyes, eyes that have seen many an historical mansion/house/hovel since my teen years. My nostalgia was hard to live up to and I confess to feeling a bit disappointed this time around. So when I saw this book in their bookstore, I had to have it hoping that magic was still there and could be rekindled. There is just something about Jefferson that clicks with me and the house that he built and rebuilt over his entire adult life seems to provide a better understanding of the man than just about anything else.

Jefferson, of course, was a man of many contradictions…and so is Monticello. This book provides plenty of details for all aspects of the building of Monticello. There are the surface facts on what was built, when parts were constructed, how it was built, and who built it (including a thorough analysis of the slave labor that went into it). But the book goes much deeper than that, really capturing Jefferson’s exacting persona and the way he poured his heart and soul into designing and constructing Monticello. He was a hands-on architect, builder, and gardener to be sure and this gigantic and long-lasting labor of love is fun to read about. Don’t expect to read much about Jefferson’s political life, the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis and Clarke, or writing the Declaration of Independence. The only real references to such things in this book are how they relate to Monticello (i.e. giving the desk upon which he wrote the Declaration to one of his master furniture makers to help compensate for the loss of the man’s best-made piece in a sunken ship). There are references to Jefferson’s time in Paris and London but not focusing on his political positions there but rather his insights on architectural ideas he gained.

I had a lot of fun reading this and took my time with it, enjoying every aspect. I am happy to report the magic is back.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm actually kind of confused by how good this book was. I expected a dry treatise from which I might pick up a few interesting tidbits, but instead I got a fluidly written, deeply thoughtful, and comprehensive look at Jefferson through the lens of his building activities. This is no hagiography, and Jefferson comes in for some criticism over his amateur building choices as well as his treatment of women. From casual sexism ("The tender breasts of ladies were not formed for political convulsions" (p. 192)) to creepy letters to his daughter ("Nothing is more disgusting to our sex as a want of cleanliness and delicacy in yours" (p. 195)) to pursuing married women even after they repeatedly rebuffed him (p. 150) to disregarding his wife's fragile health instead of practicing child planning (p. 196), he does not appear to have been a good friend to women (though interestingly he did try to hire a female bricklayer (p.248)). This was published before DNA evidence came out about Sally Hemings, so McLaughlin refrains from pronouncing on that, but I am sure he was not surprised when it did.

I learned more than I ever imagined I would know about building in 18th-century America. Everything was done "from scratch," from molding and baking bricks to planing and carving all their own wood. Jefferson struggled to get skilled workers, attempting but failing to entice indentured builders from England and Scotland. I was happy to hear that he preferred Philadelphians, and his best employee was James Dinsmore, a housejoiner and carpenter from Philadelphia who stayed with him through most of the construction, supervising and writing him with updates during his long absences.

The building of Monticello spanned a massive 40 to 60 years, which makes me feel way better about my never-ending bathroom renovation. McLaughlin blames this on Jefferson's reluctance to pay for expertise or material (though he cuts him a little slack for the other activities that demanded his attention, like writing the Declaration of Independence, and being President): "This was not the first time that Jefferson's refusal to pay the market price for building materials caused him needless delays and personal anxiety" (p. 294). He had workers train his slaves, but this ended up taking far more time than hiring experienced workers would have (p. 304). The funny thing is that Jefferson nitpicked and negotiated every purchase, compulsively recorded every expense, and yet had no idea that he was heavily in debt. Talk about missing the forest for the trees. A few of his workers, including James Dinsmore, essentially provided him interest-free loans by drawing only what they needed to live on and not taking the full payment until later, and he had to ask his housepainter not to "discount" his note, which was essentially selling the debt to a stranger who could ask for it to be paid at any time (p. 320).

Another central character trait McLaughlin focuses on is privacy. Many of Jefferson's architectural decisions, such as the porticoes off his bedroom suite, can be explained as a way to shelter him from public view--because apparently people used to just wander onto his property to see where the famous man lived. Also, life with servants. I can confirm that "architecturally, the two porticoes are a disaster" (p. 323), but without them, his bedroom is exposed to the very public terrace. This is just one in a string of questionable design decisions that he had to later rectify by choosing between a bad option and a worse one. His foyer clock, where the days of the week don't all fit and had to be extended into the basement through a hole in the floor, is a classic example. The two back windows in his dome are another: he had to raise them up higher than the others because when designing he forgot that the roof sloped up on the back side, as roofs tend to do. And then there are the staircases, which are steep, narrow deathtraps. McLaughlin also attributes these to Jefferson's desire for privacy: "To reduce the staircase from a representation of power to a functional architectural space is one thing, but to further constrict it to a dark, cramped passageway suggests that it was perhaps more deeply symbolic of its owner's difficulties with free access and disclosure" (p. 7).

McLaughlin also made fun of Jefferson for recording measurements to the fifth decimal place but then remeasuring and finding he was a foot off. Having myself cut drywall to try to fit a crooked old house, I completely understand this colliding of the conviction that this time--surely--you will get the true measurement, with the reality that Heisenberg had it right and you will never get all the measurements you want at the same time.

I also laughed at his description of Jefferson's "rampant self-indulgence in octagonality" (p. 253). He points out, though, that in an era of little artificial lighting, an octagonal room was very appealing, minimizing dark corners. This was especially so to someone who read and wrote a lot like Jefferson, who got up at sunrise to fit in as much reading and writing as he could before sundown, after which the evening was spent socializing. The extra windows did make it chilly, though, and fireplace/stove technology was in its infancy, so that was not great. (A fun side story is Jefferson's request for a "Rittenhouse stove" from Philadelphia, where he accuses Count Rumford of stealing the idea from David Rittenhouse and Benjamin Franklin and passing it off as his own in Europe; Rumford was actually the son of an American farmer who was a loyalist spy, fought in the British cavalry, moved abroad after the war, became a count of the Holy Roman Empire, and married chemist Lavoisier's rich widow, during which time he found time to design the "Rumford fireplace," which had angled sides to direct heat into the room and a smoke shelf to prevent cold air from entering the firebox and creating smoke.)

I realize I haven't even mentioned the main focus of Jefferson's architecture: Andrea Palladio. Jefferson loved this man's designs, and I am now interested to learn more of his highly influential Four Books on Architecture. In spite of my distaste for try-hard symmetry, I think if Jefferson had stuck with his initial plan it all would have turned out fine. (https://www.monticello.org/research-e...) Unfortunately, he then went to France and became obsessed with domes and one-story buildings, which is where it all went wrong. Honestly, the dome windows and the Chinese railing just kill me, and trying to make a three-story building look like a one-story building seems . . . pointless? Anna Maria Thornton when she visited in 1802 was not impressed either: "much struck by the uncommon appearance" (p. 3).

Note: Find out more on William and Anna Thornton, who sound like a fun childless couple and lived in Philadelphia. Her diary in particular sounds adorable: "She included several items of summary wisdom gleaned from years of travel in rural America, advice that is as timeless as it is universally unheeded: 'In going on a journey take as little baggage as possible.' Among indispensable items are 'a pair of sheets and pillow cases, lavender water, biscuits in the carriage, as the stages are very far apart,' and for undressing in rooms where there was little privacy--a frequent inconvenience on the road in eighteenth-century America--'take a long wrapper from head to feet.' As gifts, 'take little books to give to smart children,' but as for herself and her husband, she concluded that they traveled with 'too many books.' She also decided that chessmen were unnecessary." (p. 26).

"Whately's Observations was therefore not only a theoretical work, but a tour guide through some of the most famous picturesque gardens of England. It was precisely the kind of book that Jefferson loved, one that combined analysis and theory with practical solutions to design problems." (p. 343)

"'Here is buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and Father of the University of Virginia.' The public offices he held--governor of Virginia, secretary of state, Vice President, and President of the United States--were not, in his mind, his greatest accomplishments. Even the purchase of Louisiana, the capstone of his presidency, was not to be listed among his lasting achievements. The three accomplishments he chose to be remembered for were, significantly, acts of an architect-builder: the design of a new nation, the erection of a foundation for freedom of worship in that nation, and the founding of a great university." (p. 376)

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book about the building of Monteicello. As a person interested in architecture, I really enjoyed reading about the construction practices of Jefferson's day. Monteicello was built and rebuilt over most of Jefferson's life.

Jefferson had difficulity obtaining skilled laborers for many of the things he needed done with his house. Brick making was time consuming and he needed lots of bricks for his house. He had some of his slaves learn to make bricks. He needed skilled craftsmen to lay the bricks, frame the doors and windows. Craftsmen were in short supply in those days. He had some of his slave learn the crafts of the skilled craftsmen he hired. He even built his own shop to make nails.

Jefferson designed many unique features into his home. Readers gain a great deal of insight into Jefferson's personality by reading this book. Jefferson was interested in everything. He kept a garden book tracking what he planted and its progress. He often did calculations to determine the cheapest and best way to do things. He played the violin, studied science and various other fields. What a remarkable man Jefferson was!

I did not know that Jefferson was not good at keeping track of his finances. He could see the leaves in minute detail but lost track of the forest. He died about a $100,000 in debt a huge sum in those days.

If you are interested in either architecture or Jefferson, this is a great book to read. I really enjoyed it.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Possibly the most interesting of the American founders, personally, for me, not a good guy in the least but very flawed and very interesting, and this book is less about his presidency and more about his fascination with architecture, specifically the construction of Monticello, his home, where you view the affairs and managing of his household and the general construction of the home over the course of decades (it took forevor for this fucker to build monitcello because he was so perfectionistic and constantly redid the plans for the home) so it's a mix of architectural insights of the home which reflect Jeffersons character mixed with the personal affairs and day to day of running the homes and certain events.

I feel he defines a sort of American selective universalism, despite in many ways being a very exclusive universalism, which is defined by Jefferson's attempts to justify slavery, while at moments in his life having moments of admittance of the irreconcilability that he violated his own code of ethics due to the wealth and standard of living he was accustomed towards living being born into a Virginia plantation wealth (by that I mean being a landowner Jefferson frequently had to borrow money for projects and other stuff).

He's a walking contradiction, and I think that basically represents the two sides of America as being visionary in terms of ideals, yet that being contrasted with having profound moral failings when it came to the actual action of those actual ideals being, as I said, exclusionary to the point that it might've been better for the disenfranchised slaves treated as chattel if the British had won the revolutionary war.

Also, Jefferson fucked his wife to death, apparently the dude was way too horny and the constant childbirths had a toll on his wife, who was able to have 6 children, two of which survived to full health, the rest dying in early infancy or childhood and the cumulative strain of repeated childbirth was too much which made him feel later guilty and morally strict in regards to women and sex.

I haven't gotten to the stuff with Sally Hemmings which is beyond messed up as he had 4 children with her only two of which he freed while he was alive the rest he freed in his will and Sally was never freed legally but only in an extralegal informal way which means she was a slave on paper and this was done to preserve the reputation of Jefferson as it would aknowledge the rumors about their relationship.

I think he's an extremely complicated human in regards to American figures in history, which I think is good because he defies any romanticization of virtue I remember having to do a project on him when I was a child and a lot of what was fed to me was omitted details of Jefferson as being quite complicit.

I think rather than Washington that Jefferson represents Americans more appropriately or at least the spirit of American idealism in its bouts of hypocrisy.

Also, he could be a persnickety douche at times, the columns for his house were off by like a hair, and he noticed and got really agitated insisting it had to be taken down and redone, which, mind you, was done by slaves.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting, detailed study of how Monticello reflected the life and times of its builder, Thomas Jefferson. Ironically, I found the sections on Jefferson's years in Paris, and how it influenced not only his architectural plans, but what he served in his kitchen, how he furnished his rooms and how he entertained guests, to be more fascinating than the actual building of Monticello. My caveat with this book is that it was written in the 1980s, and thus does not include the latest scholarship on Jefferson and Sally Hemings. It's difficult now to tell the story of Monticello without that background. Indeed, based on what we know today, walk-on roles by members of the Hemings family in this book seem rather underplayed. That's not a slam at the author, but does reflect how much more we've learned over the years about life at Monticello.

[Stan Prager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review of: Jefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder, by Jack McLaughlin
by Stan Prager (4-24-16)

It was my great good fortune to happen upon a copy of Jefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder, by Jack McLaughlin, at a used book store some months prior to my scheduled “Behind the Scenes” tour of Monticello. I had read about half of the book by the day of the tour, and when I mentioned it to the outstanding docent who led us through the unique architecture of Jefferson’s lifetime building project – including steep staircases to upstairs bedrooms and the iconic dome not part of the standard tour – he nodded approvingly and exclaimed that it is a “great book.” I read the second half in the days that followed the tour, and upon completion I have to agree with my guide: it is a truly great book on every level! And while I did not plan to read it in two installments, with the Monticello visit sandwiched in, in fact it certainly enriched the experience.
Perhaps my favorite comment about Thomas Jefferson was the one made by President John F. Kennedy at a 1962 White House dinner honoring Nobel Prize recipients: “I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.” JFK’s remarks were hardly glib: Jefferson was a remarkably brilliant man who mastered seven languages, possessed an encyclopedic mind, had a highly intuitive, analytic intellect and brought innovation to virtually everything he touched or encountered.
Jefferson was also a polymath extraordinaire: author, thinker, political philosopher, statesman, inventor, musician, wine connoisseur, farmer, scientist, meteorologist, equestrian, politician – the list goes on and on. And that catalog usually includes architect and builder, but what is eminently clear from visiting his mansion and reading McLaughlin’s fine work is that for Jefferson Monticello – it means “little mountain” – was not simply another of his multifarious projects and obsessions, but rather it was part of his DNA. Jefferson spent his lifetime building, tearing down, rebuilding and adding to Monticello. The “museum” visitors tour today was only structurally completed (with the installment of the Doric columns on the West Portico) in 1823, some three years before Jefferson’s death; it probably never looked exactly the way it does today at any actual moment of Jefferson’s lifetime. It was always, like the man himself, a work in progress. In his provocative work The Phenomenon of Man, philosopher and theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin advocated for turning each new day into a process of “becoming” a new person based upon the insight and experience gleaned from the days that have gone before. While the latter was written more than a century after he was gone, in a way it seems that Jefferson lived his life in just this fashion and that Monticello was the structural reflection of his own unique evolution of “becoming.” It remains his most tangible physical legacy. Thus the subtitle of McLaughlin’s wonderful book -- The Biography of a Builder – is especially apt. The author helps the reader to understand that Jefferson and Monticello were in a sense twin manifestations of a single soul.
While there are breaks to explore specific themes, Jefferson and Monticello generally traces Jefferson’s life and the construction of Monticello in parallel. Jefferson’s design of Monticello was inspired by the influential sixteenth century Venetian architect Andrea Palladio, who was himself deeply influenced by classical Greek and Roman forms. But the genius of Jefferson was ever his ability to innovate and transform, so while Palladio’s work remained a significant model, Monticello took shape as nothing less than a true iconic Jefferson structure. Along the way, McLaughlin teaches the uninitiated much about architecture and building techniques in the eighteenth century and the kinds of compromises requisite when under construction in the relative wilds of Virginia in those days. I never knew, for instance, that the reason why brick buildings of that era varied so markedly in color across regions was because brick was typically fired on-site with local clays mixed with water. Jefferson added an additional challenge by choosing to build on a mountain top, something almost unheard of at the time, which meant there were issues with accessibility to resources – and especially to water, which is the other essential ingredient to brickmaking. In the end, rather than attempt to transport tens of thousands of bricks to the mountaintop, Jefferson opted to source water and build kilns on the site. Nails were also made there. McLaughlin, somewhat of a polymath himself, was not only professor of English and Humanities at Clemson University, but he also built his own home. His passion for both history and construction is evident in his prose, which is almost poetic at times. He relates a fascinating story with some pregnant detail, yet the narrative never grows dull.
With all of his talents, Jefferson also had a paradoxical side, as showcased superbly in Joseph Ellis’ masterwork, American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson had an uncanny ability to hold two almost diametrically opposed notions in mind simultaneously without the sort of cognitive dissonance this would provoke for most people. The dark side of this contradiction is tragically underscored as he famously decried the great evil of chattel slavery yet throughout his lifetime owned some two hundred human beings and likely fathered a half-dozen children by one of them. Despite his obvious admiration for his subject, McLaughlin hardly gives Jefferson a pass in this regard, devoting an exceptional chapter entitled “To Possess Living Souls,” to this great incongruity. As McLaughlin and the tour guides these days at Monticello make incontrovertibly clear, it was primarily the labor of African-American slaves that built Monticello, and their master was the great statesman who wrote that “All men are created equal.” The author makes clear that while Jefferson was not a cruel master, and that he seemed to genuinely care for the welfare of his “property,” human slavery in itself is a cruelty. Moreover, slaves were whipped at Monticello, as on other plantations, and those who did not fall into line were sold away from their families to distant lands. Although this book was published in 1988, before DNA evidence seems to have settled the argument about rumors of the long liaison between Jefferson and Sally Hemings, McLaughlin implies that he takes this for fact and repeatedly points to the special treatment members of the Hemings family received at Monticello. On her deathbed, Jefferson promised his wife Martha (“Patty”) that he would never again wed, but this pledge did not stop him apparently from begetting some six children with (ironically!) Martha’s much younger mulatto half-sister, Sally. For all of his accomplishments, this paradox of Jefferson as slave-owner will forever leave an indelible stain on the great man’s reputation.
Jefferson and Monticello, which was nominated for both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, is one of the finest books I have read in some time on a variety of levels. Sadly, Jack McLaughlin died very recently (in November 2015, at eighty-nine years old) so I could not share my praise of this wonderful volume with him. Still, his work lives on. I highly recommend this book to all who seek a greater understanding of Jefferson, of American history, and of architecture. And be sure to visit Monticello, because in that ancient homestead a part of Thomas Jefferson still thrives.

My review of: Jefferson and Monticello: The Biography of a Builder, by Jack McLaughlin, is live on my book blog https://regarp.com/2016/04/24/review-...
https://www.amazon.com/review/R32J8U5...

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an architecture buff, I love Monticello and the more I read about it, the more impressed I am. McLaughlin also writes from the perspective of someone who built his own house and on some gut level, knows the pitfalls. What frustrated me somewhat as someone who has spearheaded several home renovations was his description of Jefferson's relationship with debt. First of all, you can't underestimate the value, in terms of managing expenses, of having slave labor. In terms of having a comfortable moral life with oneself, well, it sets you up to not being able to be honest with yourself. Jefferson was preoccupied with calculating the cost of everything, for example how long it would take 5 men to make 10,000 bricks, and he did pay attention to trying to pay back his creditors, but he was totally underwater in terms of debt by the time he died....but he did leave a beautiful house, if not an optimally maintained house.

[Crose · Rating 5 out of 5]

McLaughlin provides an incisive look at the multifaceted nature of Jefferson's character. This biography goes beyond the typical narrative, exploring Jefferson's playful side and his domestic concerns alongside his political ambitions. crossy road's a well-rounded examination that sheds light on daily life in Colonial America, making it an essential read for history enthusiasts and anyone curious about the life of a founding father.

[Janilyn Kocher]

A thorough examination of Jefferson’s long career of building. It’s hard to remember that Monticello didn’t look as it does today when Jefferson was alive. It was mostly in disarray and in pieces during his numerous construction projects. It also brought to light how he was a spendthrift and died in debt for over $100,000.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography of Jefferson reveals the man, Jefferson, almost entirely through the building of Monticello, which he began building as a young man and completed only right before his death at the age of 83. It does not focus on Jefferson, the politician, at all. I found it to be a refreshingly different approach to writing about Jefferson. It was short-listed for the National Book Award.

[Mike Doyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone interested in Architecture, history or biographies. An amazing look into the world of Thomas Jefferson and his life long trial of building his Palladian mansion Monticello.

[Steve Godfrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

rec. Jim Van Eerden

[Roger Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting account of Thomas Jefferson's building of Monticello in Virginia which he continued remodelling and changing for fifty years. I would love to visit Monticello.

[Susan C Lance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bio through building of Monticello.

[David Maggio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought the book was interesting for the most part, but fell a bit with too much uninteresting details about information that I did not consider to be a part of architecture.

[John Francy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow but interesting reading from the perspective of Jefferson as a builder of Montillcello. Very detailed but all in all recommended,

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

-interesting to see how the grid/colonial style windows were made and how, due to technique, each grid was a separate piece of glass
-when he brought his bride, on a small part of it, his bachelor pad, was done
-how much he had to be in charge of things, and then why it was so behind
-how much, even though you never hear of it, he was controlling and did not view women as equal

[Anastasia Hobbet · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wholly different way of looking at Jefferson, through the lens of Monticello, and his obsessive building and rebuilding of the house. Jefferson's public life is scrupulously avoided, mentioned only when it bears directly on his (always desperate) cash situation or his changing taste. His 8 years in the White House is mentioned only because it almost bankrupted him; and his long stay in France is mentioned only because it refined his architectural esthetics. True, all that's been covered endlessly elsewhere, but it disconcerted me in the reading. By leaving the core of his existence out of the book, you end up with a Jefferson who seems to have nothing on his mind when he's at Monticello except ripping the place up once again, and the effort makes him seem almost insane by the end of the book, when the house is unfinished and falling apart despite his 40 years of almost non-stop building and remodeling, and he is so far in debt that his daughter has to sell Monticello not long after he's dead. You begin to wonder: Americans elected this nut to two terms as President?!

To help counter this effect, I kept my iPad close by as I read, and filled in the gaps here and there by reading about Jefferson's fuller life. At the same time, the book was meaty with period detail, and I appreciated McLaughlin's discussion of slave life and status at Monticello, particularly the question of whether Jefferson fathered several children with a black mistress. McLaughlin says yes, but he settles the question not by reviewing the genetics but by teasing from the estate's records the many ways in which Jefferson treated his black family with much greater interest and concern for their welfare than his other slaves. This sticks with me as one of the great strengths of the book, and gave a much more human face to this brilliant, restless, contradictory man.

[Joshua Gates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Monticello, the accumulation of one man's dream and irregular work habits, Thomas Jefferson, enshrined in history as a father of the Declaration of Independence. Among his many jobs, he was an admired architect, tho not by profession. His skills came from years of study and a couple of diplomatic visits to France for inspiration. With the help of slave labor and hired professionals from Europe and parts of America, Monticello was finally completed after fifty years of interruptions and alterations. A meticulous minded Jefferson was known for letting the skilled workers go because of a dispute he had or their lack of precise attention to his specifications. One reason his mansion, or retreat from the trials of the world took so long to be constructed was that Jefferson acted as sole supervisor. With irregular intrusions from social functions, government appointments and elections, and diplomatic tenures Monticello quickly became a labor of love. A labor that would weather the passing of his life's love and presidential obligations. Monticello stands today as a building that attests to Jefferson's influence from France and Palladio, his unique planning and construction methods, and desire of privacy from the world found in the study with only one accessible door. Everything about Monticello reflects how Jefferson carefully designed it to function as a world renown Virginia hospitable dwelling complete with a round roof tower and Chinese fences. Thomas Jefferson created a unique building, constructed with his precise instructions and material interests that served a variety of roles throughout his life. His labor of love still stands, but is now in need of significant preservation and so to does his tombstone expresses his ideas of being a builder and creator of The University of Virginia and the Declaration of Independence.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to admire Jefferson, I really do: the Declaration of Independence, the Louisiana Purchase, the University of Virginia, his love and pursuit of science, his devotion to family, and...Monticello. But as this thoroughly researched and intriguingly written biography highlights, Monticello was built using a tremendous quantity of slave labor. Slaves made the brick, sawed the lumber, dug the foundations, and terraced the gardens at Monticello. Despite Jefferson's careful attention to recording the smallest details of daily life, he never balanced his accounts and at the end of his life not only could not afford the upkeep of Monticello, but left his estate with a debt that took 50 years to settle. Then, of course, there is Sally Hemmings (only treated lightly in this account) and the less-than-noble treatment of John Adams (not addressed in this book). Nevertheless, admiration for Jefferson as an architect-builder does not escape me, nor does admiration for the masterpiece that Monticello is.

Another point that struck me is that the Monticello that you walk through today is quite different from the unfinished and already deteriorating building that Jefferson inhabited. Today's Monticello is a meticulously-kept museum and shrine.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

After visiting Monticello last summer, I picked this book to get an idea of the history of the home, and the complex man who built it. I had been disturbed by the hypocrisy of slave owner/champion of liberty President Jefferson for years, but have come to a better understanding of the man over time. This book provided so much insight into Jefferson's personality, and life history. Parts of it were slow reading, such as when the author went into great detail about the workmen, and how Jefferson kept such detailed records of the materials. Overall, however, the details added up like pieces of a huge jigsaw puzzle creating a picture of our third president that I enjoyed learning to appreciate, FLAWS and all.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of Jefferson's trials and tribulations through the many years of his constructing, tearing down, and reconstructing his home, Monticello. I was absorbed by all the details of his efforts to achieve perfection, architecturally, while, at the same time, creating a home for his wife (who sadly died long before it was even close to completion) and children, not to mention the myriad guests who crossed the threshold of his perpetual work in progress. I learned a great deal about the making of nails and bricks and how he paid the craftsmen and the role of his slaves (yes, they played a major role in the building), and about the meticulous detail he attended to while away being president among other responsibilities. Amazing book!

[Byron Woodson Sr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some books are not appropriately titled. This one is. It is not only about Jefferson, but truly about Monticello as well. That means that the book covers not only the builder and the house, but the plantation, as well. And not only the house, but people who built the house. Monticello was not only a house, but a plantation, the home of enslaved workers, indentured workers, paid workers, the Jefferson family, and, occasionally, relatives and friends. This book covers it all, as one story with dignity, grace, honesty, and competence. It is one of the few books that touches on slavery at Monticello without distorting it. (Slavery is not the primary focus of the book. The book is about Monticello and its architect/builder/owner, but the credit is earned and needs to be conveyed.)

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting biography of Jefferson, written mainly as a tribute to his skills and love of architecture and the construction of Monticello. Don't look for vignettes from his Presidency or assume they'll be much in here on the authorship of the Declaration of Independence or time in Paris. Obviously much of Jefferson's life did take place at Monticello so there is some important content this book covers, but it does bog down at times with mundane architectural notes. All in all, not the best Presidential bio I've ever read.

[Sue · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved visiting Monticello, but not this book. It seemed the author was compelled to include every detail of his obviously exhaustive research, and the flow and pace suffered. Made it only halfway through. Brings up a Goodreads dilemma: is it fair to mark it as "Read"?
On the other hand, there was a lot of fascinating info on life in that period.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Besides the less-than-HD audiobook recording (to say the least), I expected to hear more about the art and architecture of the house. At least now I don't have to read another separate biography about TJ -- although this one included the most info about his wife that I've ever heard/read just about anywhere.

[Tim Cim · Rating 1 out of 5]

A classic publish or perish book that put me to sleep. Far too in depth with the details. i.e. - I don't care how much he spent on bricks from each brick maker and how much time each guy took to lay the bricks. Honestly - I made it half way through but just couldn't finish it.

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this in preparation of going to Monticello in July. Very interesting and I think I got a lot more out of Monticello because I ready it. BUT, if you're not going to Monticello any time soon, it's not exactly a "page turner."