Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A debut that combines historical nonfiction with travel books, for fans of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, In Pursuit of Jefferson is the story of an American on a journey through Europe, following the epic trail of Thomas Jefferson.

A controversial founding father. A man ready for a change. And a completely unique trip through Europe.

In 1784, Thomas Jefferson was a broken man. Reeling from the loss of his wife and stung from a political scandal during the Revolutionary war, he needed to remake himself. To do that, he traveled. Wandering through Europe, Jefferson saw and learned as much as he could, ultimately bringing his knowledge home to a young America. There, he would rise to power and shape a nation.

More than two hundred years later, Derek Baxter, a devotee of American history, stumbles on an obscure travel guide written by Jefferson--Hints for Americans Traveling Through Europe--as he's going through his own personal crisis. Who better to offer advice than a founding father himself? Using Hints as his roadmap, Baxter follows Jefferson through six countries and countless lessons. But what Baxter learns isn't always what Jefferson had in mind, and as he comes to understand Jefferson better, he doesn't always like what he finds.

In Pursuit of Jefferson is at once the story of a life-changing trip through Europe, an unflinching look at a founding father, and a moving personal journey. With rich historical detail, a sense of humor, and boundless heart, Baxter explores how we can be better moving forward only by first looking back.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Chapter 1 The Starting Line (p. 1)
• Chapter 2 Something New Under the Sun (p. 17)
• Chapter 3 Traveling like Jefferson (p. 27)
• Chapter 4 Paris, Springtime (p. 43)
• Chapter 5 The Earth Belongs Always to the Living (p. 52)
• Chapter 6 Rambles through the Vineyards (p. 69)
• Chapter 7 Jefferson's Dream (p. 85)
• Chapter 8 Sitting in an English Garden (p. 97)
• Chapter 9 Behind the Fence (p. 111)
• Chapter 10 A Continued Feast through Italy (p. 123)
• Chapter 11 The Rice Smuggler (p. 140)
• Chapter 12 Remedial Education (p. 151)
• Chapter 13 The Architecture of Dreams (p. 170)
• Chapter 14 Those Who Labor for My Happiness (p. 185)
• Chapter 15 Hard Truths (p. 196)
• Chapter 16 Look Closer: Stories of the Enslaved (p. 210)
• Chapter 17 The Long Walk to Freedom (p. 223)
• Chapter 18 The Last Days of the Ancien Régime (p. 241)
• Chapter 19 French Revolutions (p. 252)
• Chapter 20 A la Recherche du Moose Perdu (p. 272)
• Chapter 21 As If Both Sides of the Atlantic Were Not Warmed by the Same Genial Sun (p. 291)
• Chapter 22 We'll Always Have Paris (p. 305)
• Chapter 23 The Never-Ending Pursuit of Happiness (p. 323)
• Acknowledgments (p. 336)
• Reading Group Guide (p. 338)
• A Conversation with the Author (p. 340)
• Illustration Credits (p. 345)
• Abbreviations (p. 348)
• Notes (p. 350)
• Index (p. 390)
• About the Author (p. 406)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

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. (Mar.)

Booklist Review

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.

Kirkus Book Review

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. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.