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| American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
Paperback
Author: Joseph J. Ellis
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: 1998-04-07
ISBN-10: 0679764410
ISBN-13: 9780679764410
List Price: $15.95
Average Customer Rating:
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For a man who insisted that life on the public stage was not what he had in mind, Thomas Jefferson certainly spent a great deal of time in the spotlight--and not only during his active political career. After 1809, his longed-for retirement was compromised by a steady stream of guests and tourists who made of his estate at Monticello a virtual hotel, as well as by more than one thousand letters per year, most from strangers, which he insisted on answering personally. In his twilight years Jefferson was already taking on the luster of a national icon, which was polished off by his auspicious death (on July 4, 1896); and in the subsequent seventeen decades of his celebrity--now verging, thanks to virulent revisionists and television documentaries, on notoriety--has been inflated beyond recognition of the original person.
For the historian Joseph J. Ellis, the experience of writing about Jefferson was "as if a pathologist, just about to begin an autopsy, has discovered that the body on the operating table was still breathing." In American Sphinx, Ellis sifts the facts shrewdly from the legends and the rumors, treading a path between vilification and hero worship in order to formulate a plausible portrait of the man who still today "hover[s] over the political scene like one of those dirigibles cruising above a crowded football stadium, flashing words of inspiration to both teams." For, at the grass roots, Jefferson is no longer liberal or conservative, agrarian or industrialist, pro- or anti-slavery, privileged or populist. He is all things to all people. His own obliviousness to incompatible convictions within himself (which left him deaf to most forms of irony) has leaked out into the world at large--a world determined to idolize him despite his foibles.
From Ellis we learn that Jefferson sang incessantly under his breath; that he delivered only two public speeches in eight years as president, while spending ten hours a day at his writing desk; that sometimes his political sensibilities collided with his domestic agenda, as when he ordered an expensive piano from London during a boycott (and pledged to "keep it in storage"). We see him relishing such projects as the nailery at Monticello that allowed him to interact with his slaves more palatably, as pseudo-employer to pseudo-employees. We grow convinced that he preferred to meet his lovers in the rarefied region of his mind rather than in the actual bedchamber. We watch him exhibiting both great depth and great shallowness, combining massive learning with extraordinary naïveté, piercing insights with self-deception on the grandest scale. We understand why we should neither beatify him nor consign him to the rubbish heap of history, though we are by no means required to stop loving him. He is Thomas Jefferson, after all--our very own sphinx.
Excellent characterization of the man
| Customer Rating: | 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. |
Like trying to catch lightning in a bottle!
| Customer Rating: | The very meaning of the title of Joseph Ellis' book "American Sphinx" literally means American Enigma. Yes indeed Thomas Jefferson was a mysterious person.
As pointed out by Michiko Kakutani in her New York Times book review "Jefferson became accustomed to constructing worlds of great imaginative appeal that inevitably collided with the more mundane realities." For instance Mr. Jefferson abhorred slavery, but he indeed remained a slaveholder throughout his life. His take on people of African descent was that their mental aptitude was inferior to whites comes into conflict with his romantic attachment to Sally Hemings a slave on his estate at Monticello.
Mr. Jefferson comes from the founding Fathers who believed in States rights and less Federal government. It does seem as confusing that as President he was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase, a rather Federalist move if I do say so myself.
Mr. Ellis' prose explains all these contradictions and in the end do we really know who Thomas Jefferson really was? In effect Ellis has shown us the very first true American Politician. Jefferson bends with the breeze. He can agree with a position on States rights in one context and go out and make the largest purchase of land in American history in another context.
While George Washington became our first Soldier Statesman and John Adams was our first American intellectual President, Thomas Jefferson really was our first Political President. In many respects he doesn't appear as he really is. Who is this man? Come to think of it does anybody really know Franklin D. Roosevelt? Franklin was the ultimate politician.
Hence Jefferson remains an enigma. Ellis has used his superb knowledge of this time of American history to explain the political and personal mind of Thomas Jefferson. Excellent read! Yes, Michiko Kakutani yours was a good review of a good book.
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The Elusive Jefferson
| Customer Rating: | | This book is a wonderful insight into the character of one our most esteemed "founding fathers." But Ellis presents him in a light that we seldom see him in. History is a strange thing, especially popular history. Unlike other areas of scholarship, every American has his/her own interpretation of who the so-called founders were. Ellis seeks to crack the halos and clip the wings to portray Jefferson for who he really was- or at least what all the available evidence best suggests. |
tabloid history
| Customer Rating: | Absolute claptrap from a morally bankrupt excuse of a human being who cannot find his niche in his pathetic underachieving life. He resorts to "tabloid" history, finding it makes up for his inability to do real research or be able to critically evaluate it. His personal ability to read into the heart and motivations of the founding fathers is ridiculous.
Save your money and buy a real book by a real historian. The more read you are on one of his "targets", the more you will find his writing vacant. He must have worked for the enquirer. |
Great book!
| Customer Rating: | | This book is quite pleasing, it is well argued and well written. If you like "juicy" biographies full of details and trivia you will be disappointed, nonetheless, it still has a wealth of biographical data that makes the book interesting and instructive. The main focus of the book is on Jefferson's achievements and legacy. The man (Jefferson) was an intellectual colossus and was never short on peculiar and original ideas; he remains an icon for all Americans that are wary of big government and all Americans that defend the sovereignty of the individual. I am glad I picked up this book as my starter on Jefferson. |
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