Rating: 
Summary: Review the book, not the author
Review: Have any of you ever heard of the "ad hominem" logical fallacy. Joseph Ellis' questionable conduct has nothing to do with the contents of this book. He is a well respected historian and his attempts to paint himself as a Vietnam veteran are nothing greater than an illustration of the same demons all humans battle in an effort to rise above our baser impulses. The very same impulses that he so eloquently illustrates in this book.
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Summary: The Character - What a Character! - of Joe Ellis
Review: I'll bet that 90% of earlier reviewers who gave this book high marks would retract their ratings in light of the author's exposure as an habitual fabricator of "history." This book should be recategorized as "historical fiction." What a hack! Ellis deserves to be sued by the publisher, the purchasers of the book, and the American people for fraud. At least we have the satisfaction of knowing that this man's false witness has finally caught up with him. Due to the uncanny timing of Ellis' groundbreaking 1998 report, "Jefferson Fathered Slave's Last Child" -- just a few weeks before the House vote on Clinton's impeachment -- I recommend that all extant copies of Ellis' books be donated to the Clinton Lie-brary.
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Summary: Author has questionable ethics
Review: The Boston Globe has exposed Mr. Ellis as a liar for his fabrications about his non-service in Vietnam, his bogus stories of civil rights protests in the South, bogus accounts of playing high school football and fabrications of helping David Halberstand with his book. Ellis never served in Vietnam and he smeared Thomas Jefferson with bogus claims. He tarnishes the good name of men who actually fought and died in Vietnam. Disgraceful. Avoid anything written by this man.
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Summary: Ellis accuses Jefferson of duplicity -- But he's a liar!
Review: It is essential that we understand Ellis's attack on Jefferson -- which is based on the Founding Father's "duplicity" -- in the context of the recently discovered intentional and reprehensible duplicity in the esteemed professor's own life. Ahh, once again, the collectivists resort to lies and revisionisms to make their points. Liberals (in the 20th-century U.S. sense) beware! There are people who still know what truth is. NO, truth it is not a matter of opinion open to interpretation (and manipulation)! Truth either exists or does not exist. Example: One either fought in Vietnam or one did not. Ellis is finding this out now, thankfully. This is an eye opener that I believe should be noted in every subsequent printing of the book: Professor's past in doubt Discrepancies surface in claim of Vietnam duty By Walter V. Robinson, Globe Staff, 6/18/2001 Joseph J. Ellis Ford Foundation Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College LITERARY ACCOLADES: • Pulitzer Prize in History for "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation." • National Book Award winner in Nonfiction for "American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson." • Joseph Ellis awarded Pulitzer • Review: "Founding Brothers" • New look at US founders • Ellis wins national book award • Ellis: Jefferson is overrated SOUTH HADLEY - At Mount Holyoke College, Joseph J. Ellis has never been more revered. He is a beloved mentor to many students, and perhaps the college's most popular and engaging professor. Now he has become a national literary icon for his 1997 Jefferson biography and the Pulitzer Prize in History he just received for his latest bestseller, ''Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation.'' Yet Ellis's historical focus extends beyond the country's early days. For years now, his course on Vietnam and American Culture has been one of the school's most popular - enriched, say his students, by his sometimes detailed recollections of his own Army service in Vietnam. But Ellis did not serve in Vietnam at all, according to military records obtained by the Globe and interviews with his friends from the 1960s. He spent his three years in the Army teaching history at the US Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. Ellis also appears to have exaggerated the extent of the involvement he claims to have had in both the antiwar and civil rights movements. Last Thursday, Ellis agreed to an interview about the discrepancies. But Mount Holyoke spokesman Kevin McCaffrey quickly canceled the interview. Ellis, he said, would not discuss any of the issues. Friday evening, from the front stoop of his Amherst home, Ellis shook his head ''no'' when asked by a Globe reporter whether he would address the contradictions. ''I'll have to suffer the consequences of this,'' Ellis said.
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Summary: One great autobiography!
Review: Here ye! Here ye! Joseph J. Ellis has written an outstanding book about our third president; Thomas Jefferson! This book tells you the whole story on this man, not only his virtues and assets, but his bad qualities and his faults. I strongly recommed reading this amazing book, because it proves that Thomas Jefferson, our third president, is truly the American Sphinx!
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Summary: Thoroughly Outstanding
Review: As a little kid, my parents would take me on picnics to Monticello. I remembered revering Jefferson for his inventive mind and his incredibly beautiful home, as well as his writing skills and political genius. I grew up placing him in my pantheon of heroes as someone to model my own life after. Unexpectedly, Joe Ellis's eloquent and compelling character study of our revered third present has torn away the gloss my childhood perceptions had painted over this very human Legend. At times during my reading, I found myself frustrated with Jefferson's unbelievable duplicity, his fear of confrontation, and his dogmatic approach to American republicanism. But in the end, I can safely say I respect Jefferson the President and even Jefferson the Man, in spite of his very human attributes. This book also certainly provides a basis for the claim that there is nothing new under the Sun of American Politics, despite many politicians' appeal to the contrary--that somehow Jefferson and His Contemporaries were above much of the treachery and infighting that fills our evening newscasts today. This idea may be depressing for some, but somehow I feel better about it... An excellent read.
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Summary: Great biography with some pop psychology thrown in
Review: Ellis gives a synoptic vision of Jefferson's life from the revolutionary days in 1776 until his death in Monticello on July 4, 1826. True to the subtitle of the book, much of American Sphinx is spent analyzing the psychological constitution of Jefferson. The more interesting parts of this analysis convey facts about Jefferson's behavior: for instance, it is by now well established by genetic evidence that Jefferson sired at least one offspring by one of his slaves, Sally Hemmings. Unfortunately, Ellis goes beyond describing what Jefferson did, and performs a kind of psychological analysis of Jefferson in an attempt to explain his morally questionable behavior; this psychological dimension of American Sphinx weaves a distracting and unconvincing thread throughout the entire book : it is hard enough to analyze someone in your living room, much less a historical figure we are viewing from a distance of two-hundred years. Structurally speaking, the book is superb: the chapters are well chosen to give snapshots of Jefferson during his most important years politically. Further, the prose is clear and conversational, but without sacrificing commitment to historical accuracy. Finally, if you disagree with any of Ellis' claims about Jefferson, the book is exceedingly well referenced so you will be able to look at the voluminous original sources cited to determine if his conclusions are justified. Overall, I would recommend this book to someone who wants a well-written, broad biographical view of Jefferson's political life, and who doesn't mind a smattering of psychoanalysis along the way. However, if you want a book which focuses in on Jefferson's political philosophy, or a more objective analysis of particular political events, then I have to recommend going somewhere else.
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Summary: Essential and compelling
Review: The importantance of Thomas Jefferson in American life cannot be minimized, and this book excels in explaining why his vision was integral in shaping the United States. Ellis' style is scholarly and sober, yet the book is always fun to read and at times utterly riveting. Ellis is especially strong when focusing on Jefferson as a product of his times: it is asinine and historically obtuse to judge him in the context of the 20th century, when slavery and racism are odious. Jefferson was the quintessential 18th century man, a gentleman farmer who wished to create a Utopian society where space prevailed and personal freedom was glorified. Ellis does an exceptional job in describing the methods Jefferson used in creating the Declaration of Independence (in three weeks!)at the tender age of 32. It's instructive to reflect upon the weighty intellect of this man and the way he imposed his intelligence on others. This is a fascinating study and essential to all those who seek to understand how America was founded and ruled in its seminal years.
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Summary: always interesting
Review: Slavery and the Declaration of Independence can in no way be reconciled. -Brent Staples in the New York Times Review of the book This idiotic notion lies at the core of the Jefferson dilemma for fuzzy minded liberal twit historians; the idea that the failure of the Founding Fathers to deal with the enormously divisive slavery issue in July 1776, somehow delegitimizes the whole American Revolution. In fact, this aspect of Jefferson's character is easily explained, though his alleged relationship with Sally Hemmings is more problematic. The truly difficult aspect of his character is his profoundly antidemocratic lack of respect for the Constitution. It really isn't hard to understand the Founders' willingness to tolerate slavery. It is merely necessary to jettison the 20th Century (& 19th for that matter) detritus that clutters our minds when we look back at them through the mists of time. Whenever we watch a movie set in pre-Modern times, my wife will turn to me and say the same thing every time, "Boy those people must have really smelled." But do we think of Jefferson as crude because he took a bath once a month or whatever? No, because this was the convention of the time. Similarly, it is asinine to try to judge his opinion of Blacks by a modern standard. Western man found African Blacks living in near Stone Age conditions. This, combined with physical dissimilarities lead to the understandable, though unfortunate, belief that Blacks were somehow lesser humans. To look back from the end of the Twentieth Century and take 18th Century men to task for this is both unfair and unproductive. In judging Jefferson, it should suffice that the Declaration that he wrote, in particular the phrase: "all men are created equal", made the end of slavery inevitable. [A Thought Experiment: Suppose for a moment that we project current demographics and politics forward in time a couple decades. Women have become increasingly powerful politically and as a result many more protections have been put in for the weakest members of society. Abortion, Euthanasia and Animal Experimentation are all illegal. The people of this time could look back on us and write books about the impossibility of reconciling Bill Clinton's rhetoric with his support for all three. Surely we can see that this would be unfair.] On the other hand, the possibility of a Jefferson/Hemmings liaison is a more troubling issue. If he truly felt, as his slave ownership indicates he must have, that blacks were inferior and whites were entitled to own them, then he would be little more than a sexual predator if he initiated a physical relationship with her. She was already unable to give true consent because of the master/slave relationship, but Jefferson should have perceived her as even less able to consent if he believed her to be a member of a lesser species. I am not willing to assume that he did enter into such a relationship, it remains unproved, but if it ever is proven, it will force a major reconsideration of his character, or lack of such. The criticism of Jefferson's attitude towards Blacks actually misses the the most fundamental trouble spot in his character. It is his overly idealistic attitude towards democracy and his lack of respect for the law that really raises questions. Ellis does an excellent job of demonstrating that individual freedom and antipathy towards all institutions were the defining characteristics of Jefferson's politics. But in order for men to enjoy freedom, they have to be able to depend on the fair and consistent functioning of the laws and the system of justice. Ellis reveals numerous examples, from the Louisiana Purchase to his opposition to judicial review, of Jefferson's willingness to ignore the Constitution and resort to the arbitrary exercise of power. Moreover, his support for the majority, unfettered by the protection of minority views that Madison insisted on, coupled with his approval of the French Revolution, forces us to consider whether he even understood the importance of securing political rights in a web of laws. Ultimately he comes across as a kind of coercive utopian, willing to see the rights of the few trampled under foot in order to achieve his personal vision of the ideal agrarian democracy. It is a short step from this Jefferson to Robespierre and The Terror or Pol Pot and The Killing Fields. This excellent book raises all these issues, dealing with some better than others. But it is always interesting and is extremely well written. GRADE: A-
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Summary: Interesting, critical look at Jefferson
Review: I liked reading this book. More than other Jefferson books (even Dumas Malone's 6 volumes), you get a feeling for Jefferson's personality. That is reason enough to buy this book. I think, though, that Ellis loses his grip on Jefferson's personality about halfway through the book. After that point, Ellis cannot see anything redeeming about Jefferson. Books like this need to be written. Jefferson is too important not to be argued over. But ultimately, a writer must love his subject to portray the person most accurately. I suggest this book but also Dumas Malone's "Jefferson The Virginian," the best volume on Jefferson I've read. BTW, Ellis seems to have turned his dislike of Jefferson (which is under the surface in this whole book) to outright antagonism. In a recent Newsweek article, he referred to Jefferson as "a thinking man's racist." Ouch.
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