Best of Book History Online

Product Details

Amazon.com Review
Well timed to coincide with Ken Burns's documentary (on which the author served as a consultant), this new biography doesn't aim to displace the many massive tomes about America's third president that already weigh down bookshelves. Instead, as suggested by the subtitle--"The Character of Thomas Jefferson"--Ellis searches for the "living, breathing person" underneath the icon and tries to elucidate his actual beliefs. Jefferson's most ardent admirers may find this perspective too critical, but Ellis's portrait of a complex, sometimes devious man who both sought and abhorred power has the ring of truth.

From Publishers Weekly
Penetrating Jefferson's placid, elegant facade, this extraordinary biography brings the sage of Monticello down to earth without either condemning or idolizing him. Jefferson saw the American Revolution as the opening shot in a global struggle destined to sweep over the world, and his political outlook, in Ellis's judgment, was more radical than liberal. A Francophile, an obsessive letter-writer, a tongue-tied public speaker, a sentimental soul who placed women on a pedestal and sobbed for weeks after his wife's death, Jefferson saw himself as a yeoman farmer but was actually a heavily indebted, slaveholding Virginia planter. His retreat from his early anti-slavery advocacy to a position of silence and procrastination reflected his conviction that whites and blacks were inherently different and could not live together in harmony, maintains Mount Holyoke historian Ellis, biographer of John Adams (Passionate Sage). Jefferson clung to idyllic visions, embracing, for example, the "Saxon myth," the utterly groundless theory that the earliest migrants from England came to America at their own expense, making a total break with the mother country. His romantic idealism, exemplified by his view of the American West as endlessly renewable, was consonant with future generations' political innocence, their youthful hopes and illusions, making our third president, in Ellis's shrewd psychological portrait, a progenitor of the American Dream. History Book Club selection.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA. In studying historical leaders, students rarely get a look at the individuals behind the myths that have grown up around them. Here, Ellis does an excellent job of showing that Jefferson was a human who made many decisions and some mistakes. On the one hand, he was a great historical figure who is due respect; on the other, he was a debt-ridden man with family problems. Ellis does not have an agenda to promote; he has a story to tell, and he tells it well. In a book that reads like fiction, he combines exciting plot turns with information. At the end, readers may not know for certain that Jefferson's life had a happy ending; but they will see him as flesh and blood instead of as a stiff statue or fixed painting in the Capitol rotunda. This absorbing study concludes with an appendix dealing with the Sally Hemmings scandal as well as extensive notes and an excellent index.?Rebecca L. Woodcock, formerly of Alderman Library, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Read
Not only does this book give a deeper insight to what turned "Jefferson's clocks" in his head, but it lays out a stance for everything he would have done in different situations. The reader will certainly understand the Jeffersonian beliefs and motives and be able to align them accordingly with the modern day political JOKE that we have inherited now. This book made me proud to be an American and proud that we had such an incredible President such as Thomas Jefferson.

A Superb Biography
The problem with reviewing this book is, I do not know where to begin. Joseph Ellis provides so much essential information about the character of Thomas Jefferson that it is impossible to review this book dutifully in only a couple paragraphs.
The title of the book, American Sphinx, was spot-on. What does it mean? I believe it is the most accurate description Thomas Jefferson. From reading the book, I got a sense that Jefferson is a very mysterious character. Both political sides worship and try to claim him. Historians are even divided on just how important Jefferson was as a founding father and president. Jefferson is, and always will be, a divided subject.
Ellis does mention the Sally Heming's affair, but he does not spend chapters and chapters debating the issue. He simply makes us aware of the topic and at the end of the book gives us "A Note on the Sally Heming's scandal." I applaud Ellis for this. I did not want the entire book focusing on Jefferson's affair with a slave woman. I wanted, and received, so much more.
In all, Ellis does a superb job illustrating the life of Jefferson, including the good events and the bad. Ellis makes the reader aware of Jefferson's massive debt, just how the Declaration came about and why Jefferson was chosen, Jefferson's presidency, his friendship and feud with John Adams, and his emphatic love for the land and his home Monticello. Every person who reads this book will be able to find at least one similar characteristic relating to Jefferson.

Excellent characterization of the man
American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson, though one of the most famous and beloved of the founding fathers, remanis a mystery to most of us. He is largely revered for his authoring of the Declaration of Independence; but his authorship of that most famous document does little to reveal the character and mind of Thomas Jefferson.

American Sphinx accomplishes this very well; revealing the seemingly contradictory nature of the man who, with every aspect of his existence, and action, had an idea of what American should become and through these actions sought to steer America in that direction.

Much is written about his relationship with Sally Hemings in contemporary , popular literature and that is touched upon in this book, as is the contradiction observed when Jefferson sought to end slavery though he was "enslaved" to the institution of slavery himself, much like the rest of the south at the time. Ellis doesn't dwell on the Hemings issue and I thought that appropriate.

I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5 because I thought it was a dry read at times. It is still an extremely informative read and I feel I know Thomas Jefferson much better now having read it.