Pulitzer Prize-winning author presents new book on Jefferson
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham will discuss his latest book, “Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power,” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 6, in North Central College’s Wentz Concert Hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville.
An event for history fans and students of American history alike, the presentation is followed by a question-and-answer session and book signing. Event tickets are required and available with the purchase of the book at Anderson’s Bookshop, 123 W. Jefferson Ave., Naperville.
Each book purchase entitles the customer to admission for two. For details, contact Anderson’s at (630) 355-2665 or andersonsbookshop.com.
The father of the ideal of individual liberty, of the Louisiana Purchase, of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and of the settling of the West, Jefferson recognized that the genius of humanity — and the genius of the new nation — lay in the possibility of progress, of discovering the undiscovered and seeking the unknown.
Flawed, contradictory, elusive, Jefferson was at heart a man engaged in the wars of his times. His story resonates today, not least because he embodies an eternal drama: the struggle of a leadership of a nation to achieve greatness in a difficult and confounding world.
The author of several books, Meacham received the Pulitzer Prize for “American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House,” his best-selling 2008 biography.
He is also the author of The New York Times best-sellers “Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship” and the “American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation.”
Executive editor and executive vice president of Random House, Meacham is a contributing editor to Time magazine, a former editor of Newsweek, and has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post, among other publications.
He is a regular contributor on the TV shows “Meet the Press,” “Morning Joe,” and “Charlie Rose,” and is the editor at large of WNET, the New York public television station.
In 2009, Meacham was elected to the Society of American Historians. He serves on the board of trustees of The Churchill Centre, the National Advisory Council of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics at Washington University in St. Louis, and on the advisory committee of the Center for the Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier.
Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1969, Meacham was educated at St. Nicholas School and The McCallie School. He graduated from The University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., with a degree summa cum laude in English literature and was salutatorian and elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
He lives with his family in New York and Tennessee.
If you go
What: Author Jon Meacham with Thomas Jefferson: the Art of Power
When: 7 p.m. Dec. 6
Where: North Central Colleges Wentz Concert Hall, 171 E. Chicago Ave., Naperville
Cost: Purchase of the book at Andersons Bookshop
Info: www.andersonsbookshop.com or (630) 355-2665