Reality Mugs a Founder

With The Jeffersonians, Kevin Gutzman has written a rare and welcome kind of book, one that will satisfy academic historians (insofar as academics can be satisfied), whom he engages across several highly salient scholarly questions. Students will benefit from his considerable body of research, scrupulously documented and organized in the volume’s references and indexes. But, most importantly, and impressively, Gutzman does all this heavy lifting behind a brisk and accessible, even colloquial style of writing. Combined with an exciting pace, and a keen eye for evocative detail and exemplary yarn, these make Gutzman’s account as enjoyable to the casual or hobbyist reader as any narrative history or biography on the market—and all without sacrificing any rigor whatsoever. That is a rare achievement, indeed.