Most American high school students learned about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Louisiana Purchase and Thomas Jefferson's role in it from dry boring textbooks that basically rehashed the "what, where, when, how, and why" and offered very little in terms of living history, that is most of them did not offer the perspective of the key players as well as ordinary people. Julie M. Fenster's book Jefferson's America however turns the tables. Her book is very meticulously researched with a notes page and a bibliography to direct the reader to primary as well as secondary sources. Unlike the dry history tomes, however, Fenster masterfully weaves in the perspectives of major as well as minor figures of that time. Her writing is very entertaining and even humorous at times.
I would highly recommend Jefferson's America to history buffs, high school and college students to supplement their required class reading in order to gain a better and deeper understanding of the context as well as to the general reader to expand their horizons.
Disclaimer; I received a free copy of the book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
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