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Rating: 
Summary: A superb defence of Jefferson's importance in American life
Review: Few American presidents have experienced such a fluctuating evaluation of their job as president as has Thomas Jefferson. To a large extent this is also because of his pivotal role in the creation of the American republic. His contributions are by any standard vast: principle author of The Declaration of Independence, governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War, ambassador to France following the War, first Secretary of State, second Vice President, third president, creator of the American party system (as well as of the old Republican party, that ironically evolved into the Democratic party under the leadership of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren), and author of a host of documents that have become part of the heart of American political literature. He is also viewed as the principle founder of liberalism in the United States, and is usually contrasted with John Adams, who is perceived as the founder of conservativism (though I personally find that Adams has virtually nothing in common with contemporary conservativism, which has less and less to do with Burkean ideals and concerns). This biography of Jefferson is by Joyce Appleby, one of the most renowned and respected of contemporary historians of the American Revolution and the early republic. In recent years many historians have taken aim at Jefferson to provide unflattering portraits, based either on the mercurial or inconsistent nature of his personality, the hypocrisy of his years as Adams's vice president, or his complex relations to slavery in general and Sally Hemmings in particular. Appleby does not want to ignore the very troubling aspects of Jefferson's career, especially on slavery-and who would want to, since to do so would be to tacitly endorse the "particular institution"-but she definitely wants to remind her readers both of why Jefferson is one of our greatest presidents and of his central role in fashioning some of the finest aspects of American society and political life.
It cannot be emphasized strongly enough that Appleby has written a biography that is intended to serve as a corrective to the work of historians like Joseph J. Ellis, who in books like AMERICAN SPHINX, FOUNDING BROTHERS, and PASSIONATE SAGE has been intensely critical of Jefferson on a host of grounds (indeed, Ellis portrays him as a bit of a hypocritical nutcase). Also, with a number of books that have rehabilitated John Adams, it has been inevitable that he be played off Jefferson in a way that is a bit more flattering to Adams than perhaps ought to be the case. The negative reviews of this book are, as a result, utterly incomprehensible. What to make of them? I'm not sure if the one-star reviewers haven't read this biography, or if they haven't read anything else about Jefferson. Several criticize this book for being "PC," whatever that means. Appleby points out that Jefferson remained a slaveholder despite thinking it was evil, that he consistently denigrated women in his writings, and that he very possibly had a complex relationship with Sally Hemmings. Could any good biographer ignore these issues? Of course not. More to the point, has any competent biographer ignored these issues? Did Ellis? Did Dumas Malone? These same reviewers assert that Appleby "bashes" Jefferson. Clearly, they are utterly ignorant of the greater literature on Jefferson and the Revolution. This is unquestionably a very positive portrait of Jefferson. She praises him despite his questionable views on slavery. In fact, my major complaint with the book is that she doesn't deal sufficiently with a host of actions in his life that are extremely dubious morally. For instance, he was not only the most disloyal vice president in American history, he persistently aided those journalists who savagely attacked Adams, and even assisted in one book that made scurrilous attacks on Adams morals, all while denying to Adams face that he was doing any of these things. As readers of other biographies of Jefferson are away, he had a remarkable capacity for self-justification of some very dubious actions. He was a master of "the ends justifies the means" thinking. Appleby largely skirts over this, perhaps because of her limited amount of space, perhaps because she wants to emphasize other things.
Primarily, Appleby wants to explain how the American political system is essentially Jeffersonian through its very core. His insistence on a government by the people and for the people (Lincoln was in many ways the foremost Jeffersonian to follow in his footsteps), as opposed to a patriarchal and powerful central government with an aristocracy making decisions for the many won the war for the political heart of America. In other words, he was the author for the populism that has always since remained the great ideal of American politics, even if it has sometimes been subverted. His notions of equality of opportunity, of trusting the masses rather than the few, of stressing the general will over the particular will have become lock, stock, and barrel of American political life. She wants to show that America is essentially Jefferson in its very soul. Because most of her work has been done on the intellectual history of the Revolution, she portrays this as a struggle of ideas. All in all, I think she does a masterful job of showing why Jefferson is one of our most crucial presidents.
The book is not without flaws, though its flaws are never noted in the one and two star reviews found below, which all bizarrely and surreally criticize the book because it supposedly makes Jefferson look bad. In fact, in her attempt to make Jefferson good, she sometimes makes the Federalists look worse than they ought. For instance, she never sharply distinguishes between Adams and the Federalists, let alone Adams and Hamilton, Adam hating and detesting Hamilton far more than Jefferson ever did. She often writes as if Adams and Hamilton were of one mind. Furthermore, she repeats some caricatures of the past, such as the one that Adams engaged in a host of "midnight" judicial appointments, though biographers such as Paige Smith, McCullough, and Ellis have shown that in fact these appointments had been made over the course of weeks and months, and not on a single eve. She is too good of an historian to have made such a simple mistake. At the very least she should have indicated why the caricature is correct and Adams's biographers wrong. I find the positions of many of the Federalists to be complex to sum up as neatly as she has done here.
I would heartily recommend that anyone reading this book read it in conjunction with John Patrick Diggins biography of Adams from the same series. They say that history is written by the winners, but this is a case where the outcome is still in question. Adams and Jefferson represent two great, ongoing traditions in American life. Diggins sees more virtue in Adams and more vice in Jefferson than is plausible, and much the same can be said of Appleby's opposite portrait. But anyone wanting to read this book can rest assured that this is a first rate brief biography, one that wants to praise Jefferson, not merely bash him.
Rating: 
Summary: Another Deplorable Biography on Thomas Jefferson
Review: Here it is again! Another typically deplorable biography on Thomas Jefferson from another PC historian. What a shame that the American History "profession" has once again provided us with a biased, politically correct, and slander ridden assault on the personage of Thomas Jefferson. Joyce Appleby spends more time bashing him for his views on women, indians,and slaves that you really never see the great human being who wrote the Declaration of Independence. All the typical left-wing anti-white male PC ad hominem attacks are there. I personally would not waste another dime on a book by Appleby, but if one wants a book that once again trashes an American hero, buy this one!
Rating:
Summary: Another Deplorable Biography on Thomas Jefferson
Review: Here it is again! Another typically deplorable biography on Thomas Jefferson from another PC historian. What a shame that the American History "profession" has once again provided us with a biased, politically correct, and slander ridden assault on the personage of Thomas Jefferson. Joyce Appleby spends more time bashing him for his views on women, indians,and slaves that you really never see the great human being who wrote the Declaration of Independence. All the typical left-wing anti-white male PC ad hominem attacks are there. I personally would not waste another dime on a book by Appleby, but if one wants a book that once again trashes an American hero, buy this one!
Rating:
Summary: Rehashed light-weight
Review: I share the other reviewers fairly low opinion of this book but for somewhat different reasons. I came to this small volume having read John Diggins biography on John Adams from the same series. I found Diggins work to be a short but dense intellectual history of the Adams presidency and hoped for the same from Appleby. Instead what we have is very little of anything. It is certainly not a fact oriented presentation of the events of the Jefferson presidence; while the Burr/Hamilton duel, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the 1800 election battle and other events are mentioned, there are no details. But neither is there the kind of political/philosophical discussion of the kind thatI thought Diggins carried out so well. The analysis here goes little beyond making the naked assertion that Federalists were upper class elitists who Jefferson opposed therefore is Appleby's mind Jefferson is good and isn't it just too bad that Jefferson didn't free his slaves and that he slept with Sally Hemmings. Jefferson has been criticized for much more than the conflict between the claims of the Declaration of Independence and his views on slavery but little of this can be found in Appleby's book. Similarly, there are valid reasons why several recent writers have looked on Adams with favor and while Appleby isn't bound to accept those views, there is no analysis to support her blind rejection of Adams and Federalism. Again, my objections to the book are not the positions that it takes but rather the fact that these positions are nothing more than conventional wisdom presented without support and they are presented in what is frankly not a very well written book. I can't believe that Schlesinger was pleased with this addition to his series.
Rating:
Summary: Rehashed light-weight
Review: I share the other reviewers fairly low opinion of this book but for somewhat different reasons. I came to this small volume having read John Diggins biography on John Adams from the same series. I found Diggins work to be a short but dense intellectual history of the Adams presidency and hoped for the same from Appleby. Instead what we have is very little of anything. It is certainly not a fact oriented presentation of the events of the Jefferson presidence; while the Burr/Hamilton duel, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the 1800 election battle and other events are mentioned, there are no details. But neither is there the kind of political/philosophical discussion of the kind thatI thought Diggins carried out so well. The analysis here goes little beyond making the naked assertion that Federalists were upper class elitists who Jefferson opposed therefore is Appleby's mind Jefferson is good and isn't it just too bad that Jefferson didn't free his slaves and that he slept with Sally Hemmings. Jefferson has been criticized for much more than the conflict between the claims of the Declaration of Independence and his views on slavery but little of this can be found in Appleby's book. Similarly, there are valid reasons why several recent writers have looked on Adams with favor and while Appleby isn't bound to accept those views, there is no analysis to support her blind rejection of Adams and Federalism. Again, my objections to the book are not the positions that it takes but rather the fact that these positions are nothing more than conventional wisdom presented without support and they are presented in what is frankly not a very well written book. I can't believe that Schlesinger was pleased with this addition to his series.
Rating: 
Summary: A balanced view
Review: I'm dismayed at the lack of positive reviews on THOMAS JEFFERSON. Professor Appleby has presented a very balanced view of a very controversial man. She has managed to cover Jefferson in less than 160 pages, a feat in itself. I commend to readers especially Chapter 7 and the Epilogue. Here you will find a superb anaylsis of the ups and downs of Jeffersonian reputation over the years and why Jefferson remains, in spite of it all, the enduring figure he is. Jefferson bashing has been "in" for years. It's refreshing to see a balanced view of the man---a view of Jefferson with the warts on and a view of the ideas and ideals he expounded and the accomplishment he made. I grew up when Jefferson was a real hero and over the years have witnessed the slow but steady disparagement of his character, based almost soley on his position regarding slavery and on the Sally Hemmings affair. I'm glad to see a book like this, which I think should be read by students being introduced to Jefferson for the first time and read by individuals who have read extensively on him to return them to a much needed sense of balance regarding the man.
Rating:
Summary: Short, complex, informative
Review: I'm shocked at the negative reviews this book has received. I found it to be a brilliant introduction to an incredibly complex thinker and person. Far from bashing Jefferson for his views on blacks and women, Appleby apologizes for him, and basically agrees with her negative reviewers here that we should not judge an eighteenth century figure by twentieth century standards.
Appleby has a remarkable feel for the politics of the early Republic, and does a brilliant job of recreating for a modern reader exactly what the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans were fighting over. She makes a strong case that Jefferson stood for democracy, against elitist opponents who sought to exclude common people from voting.
The core of her argument is that Jeffersonian republicanism is at the heart of our modern conception of democracy, and that both contemporary political parties -- the Democratic and the Republican -- draw equally on his legacy. An important argument to remember in these partisan times, and it gives us hope that we can overcome our current profound divisions.
Rating:
Summary: low-calorie
Review: Lightweight. Sort of silly. Author is a slave to PC trendiness. Can't believe the august Schelisnger is associated with this thing.
Rating: 
Summary: A Repeat
Review: Well written but gets boring reading the same old rehash warmed over with a different person's opinions. Nothing new here, I'm afraid, just a repeat.
Rating:
Summary: Jefferson- bashing at it's best
Review: While the book contains a multitude of 'possible facts' it was hard to tell what was 'really true' given the author's excessive, extreme and persistent (over 10% of the book) jefferson-bashing over his views on slavery, the role of women & treatment of the Indians. Joyce Appleby subverted an good author's duty to discuss a person 'in his times' and not impose 21st century judgement on 18th century circumstances. Lincoln's early views on slavery would not meet Joyce's impossibly high standard of equality. The author's bias and 'not too' hidden agenda ruin a potentially valuable book.
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