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This is less a biography of Jefferson, of whom a great deal has been written, and more an account of Jefferson's home state and university, along with his attempts to reform, through education, the unruly and stratified society of the Virginia he loved. Taylor exhibits his comprehensive knowledge of Virginia in this period, and, along the way, he wittily skewers what had formerly been Virginia's leading institution of higher education, the College of William & Mary. Its students and, after 1825, those of the University of Virginia were largely the progeny of Virginia's aristocrats (there were exceptions, like Edgar Allan Poe), and they were notably raucous and undisciplined, all of which Taylor demonstrates convincingly. Jefferson hoped to change that, but his success, in the short term, was mixed. As with so much of Jefferson's life, racial issues complicated matters. That the University of Virginia eventually became a great institution is made clear here as is the role of Jefferson's granddaughters, both educators but Taylor also shows that the university had its roots in slavery: Jefferson's debts forced the selling of slaves to pay for the university campus in Charlottesville. A complex but fascinating story.--Mark Levine Copyright 2010 Booklist

Library Journal
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Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor (history, Univ. of Virginia; The Internal Enemy) explores Thomas Jefferson's life through the lens of what his own education meant to him and how he tried, often unsuccessfully, to improve education in Virginia. One of Jefferson's crucial political defeats was the refusal of the Virginia legislature to pass a bill to provide funds for building local schools across the state. Taylor explains how Jefferson's effort to create the University of Virginia was a pet project designed to provide an alternative to the College of William & Mary, his own struggling alma mater. His goal was to educate a Virginia elite to govern toward a fairer form of democracy by abolishing slavery—but the university itself by design seemed to foster inequality, a contradiction it still struggles with today. Unfortunately, this sprawling work veers off course into tangents about Jefferson's life that have little to do with education and would have benefited from analysis about the effects of this legacy on the present condition of education in the state. VERDICT Recommended only for readers of Jeffersonian history and those curious about the history of the University of Virginia and College of William & Mary. [See Prepub Alert, 4/15/19.]—Kate Stewart, Arizona Historical Soc., Tuscon

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian enlightens us on the mindset of Colonial Virginia through Thomas Jefferson's drive to change the education system.Beginning with young Jefferson's student days at the College of William Mary, Taylor (History/Univ. of Virginia; American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804, 2016, etc.) describes a church-run school whose students had little or no interest in learning; few stayed long enough for a degree. They were irreverent and defiant, and they drank, gambled, fought, and even destroyed church and town property in drunken riots. Due to certain entrenched rules about honor, no Southern gentleman would testify against a fellow student. Within this milieu, Taylor depicts Jefferson as a man trained from childhood to exercise sovereign authority over slaves. Jefferson felt slavery was wrong in principal but essential in practice, and his abolition plan could only work with deportation. Officials in Virginia used the Bill of Rights' guarantee of free exercise of religion to ban state assistance to churches and repealed the incorporation of the Episcopalian Church. This included cutting funding and eliminating the parish tax. Jefferson fully supported this secularization and planned to use those savings and taxes for a public education system. His master plan included primary schools, including girls, and colleges (secondary) run by each county feeding one universityat Charlottesville. His schools were to be absolutely secular, and while rejecting leadership by blood, he ensured that class distinctions remained, seeking enlightened aristocrats of merit. The narrative bogs down a bit at the end with the history of the university, but Taylor is a master historian, and he delivers a highly illuminating account in which "Jefferson's social context in Virginia looms even larger than his unique personality and career achievements." Furthermore, the author plumbs the depths of his subject's objectives, faults, and ideals.A book that refreshingly adds real substance to the abundant literature on Jefferson. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.