Or Founding Father Thomas Jefferson, who fathered children both free and enslaved. Sedgewick says the idea of fathers as providers or the men in charge has changed over time.

GENERAL SKERMAN’S SON (276 pp.)—Joseph T. Durkin, SJ.—Farrar, Sfraus & Cudahy ($4.50). To the speaker’s stand at the great Exposition Hall at Omaha strode a spare, erect man with snapping ...

JEFFERSON HIMSELF—Bernard Mayo—Houghfon Mifflin ($4). Conspicuous as a missing front tooth is the gap in U.S. biography caused by the lack of a definitive life of Thomas Jefferson.* This book ...