In Pursuit of Jefferson

January 3, 2022
Attorney Baxter debuts with an entertaining and informative chronicle of his attempt to recreate Thomas Jefferson’s travels in Europe. A lifelong history buff who played Jefferson in an elementary school musical, Baxter explains that the founding father lived in Paris, where he served as America’s ambassador to France, from 1784 to 1789 and made excursions to England, the South of France, Amsterdam, and other locales. After coming across an unpublished travel guide written by Jefferson—including a detailed itinerary and eight “objects of attention” to focus on during the journey—Baxter set out to follow in Jefferson’s footsteps. Spreading their trips over eight years, Baxter and his family dine at famous Parisian restaurants, go wine tasting in Burgundy, visit English gardens and Dutch museums, and marvel at Rome’s architecture. Baxter also interweaves the history of the French Revolution and reflections on contemporary political and social matters, including the “yellow vest” protests against a proposed gas tax in France. Visits to the Memorial to the Abolition of Slavery in Nantes, France, and the Monticello estate in Virginia lead to forthright reflections on Jefferson’s racism and Baxter’s white privilege. Despite a few trite observations (“Jefferson never even set foot in a train”), Baxter manages to bridge the 18th and 21st centuries with skill. This historically informed travelogue delights.

Starred review from November 1, 2021
This jaunty, inventive approach to an old question--who was Thomas Jefferson?--turns out to be a wise, readable, and altogether satisfying work. In his first book, Baxter relates his numerous European journeys following in Jefferson's footsteps, guided by the Virginian's little-known 1788 book, Hints to Americans Traveling in Europe. Accompanied by his wife and children, the author traveled through England and much of Western Europe. Voraciously curious, he visited farms, vineyards, and towns while observing, among other things, architecture, cheese making, and viticulture, all with the engaging ingenuousness of a youngster. Baxter also unhesitatingly departed from Jefferson's Hintsto follow his guide's itineraries in the eastern U.S. Open to everything, the author remained full of good humor--until, with growing discomfort, he realized that the life and ease of his guide and hero was at every turn built on slavery. Consequently, this often chatty, light-spirited book about a citizen scientist turns into a somber reflection on the contradiction at the heart of American history. Readers shouldn't expect the measured gravity of the Odysseyor the bite of Paul Theroux's travelogues. This is travel writing in a different mode: chatty, sometimes corny, unfailingly warmhearted. Baxter's earnestness, most evident in his encounters with the people that he met along the way, was always grounded in a serious purpose--to see and learn what Jefferson saw and learned. The author also takes on another aim: to figure out how to make sense in the early 21st century of a slaveholding author who wrote a world-historical testament to freedom. Here, Baxter, his easy nature sobered, is at his honest and most candid best. What's particularly refreshing is that he captures his own amateur historian's growth in knowledge, then in confusion, and finally in rueful, disenthralled acknowledgement of the inconsistencies, hypocrisy, blindness, and selfishness that existed side by side with Jefferson's greatness. An unusually pleasing and affecting guide to Europe through the eyes of two tourists separated by more than 230 years.

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March 15, 2022
Baxter's first book is an inspired travelogue about his extensive, eight-year European adventure following Thomas Jefferson's own journey and his little-known travel guide. Baxter, an attorney with a history degree from the University of Virginia, found obvious connection with Jefferson. Traveling with his family, he was led by eager curiosity to learn about everything from architecture to formal gardens to wine. He also gleaned deep personal lessons. Baxter's twenty-first-century eyes inevitably couldn't see Jefferson without pondering the hypocrisy and racism inherent in our nation's founding. Such sobering lessons bring new meaning to Jefferson's comment, "Travel makes men wiser, but less happy." Baxter sprinkles in historical information as he attempts to reconcile Jefferson's many facets, realizing along the way that he is actually searching for his own story. He reflects on the times and country in which he lives and who he is because of them. The author may have followed in Jefferson's footsteps, but his personal journey took its own course. Baxter's humorous, warm voice is one readers will hope to hear more of in the future.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.