Thomas Jefferson: A Life

Rating:
Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: A well-written and informative biography of Thomas Jefferson, much of Randall's focus is on Jefferson's early life. In many ways it's a superior biography because of it. The reader is exposed to the educational and early vocational world that shaped Jefferson's outlook.

Jefferson's study of law is interesting in itself. His own experience in the legal field is contrasted with other early founding fathers such as Patrick Henry who, also a lawyer, followed a different avenue towards the law which was more bombastic and less founded on legal realities. The early legal education is important because much of his later writings are extensions of ideas accepted within common law. Also important is his time as a real estate lawyer, which influenced heavily his concept of private property and speculation.

There is a lot to cover in a biography of Jefferson, his years as governor of Virginia, as ambassador to France, the building of Monticello, architect of the Declaration of Independence and founder of UVA. Randall does well with this overwhelming task. Jefferson left a large amount of writings in letters, journals, articles and books that should make a biographer's job easier, but in reality has had them scratching their heads attempting to read the nuances and subtleties of his beliefs.

"Thomas Jefferson: A Life" is a worthwhile, rewarding read and an excellent starting point for introduction into his fascinating life.

Rating:
Summary: Jefferson through partisan eyes: A great, uneven effort
Review: If one can get past the fact that Willard Sterne Randall's prose is ponderous, uneven and repetitive (he shows improvement in his latest biography of Alexander Hamilton), a reader will certainly be able to appreciate the diligent research, remarkable detail and exploration of Thomas Jefferson's early life as given us by the author. The early life and formative years of America's third president has never been rendered better or in greater detail, and the first few hundred pages of this book --up to Jefferson's first years in France-- are absolutely worth reading.

Randall strikes one as somewhat prudish when it comes to exploring the more human frailties of his mighty subject, almost smugly downplaying Jefferson's sexual relationships throughout his life, and dismissing, with a scholarly sniff, the notion that Thomas Jefferson might have had an intimate relationship with his slave Sally Hemings. Scientific tests performed after the publication of this almost epic biography have raised some relevant questions, and though certainly not the centerpiece of Jefferson's life and myriad accomplishments, it is evidence of the author's almost protective prose.

Nonetheless, the complex Thomas Jefferson, a pixilated, self-absorbed genius who was also voraciously patriotic and far-sighted, is clearly painted for the reader. His ability to compartmentalize his many desires and inner conflicts is fascinating --apparently, the many facets of Jefferson seldom, if ever, communicated with each other. Yet, to watch Jefferson studying law, natural science and the classics (to name but a few fields in which he would become an authority), molding himself (with a good deal of generous patronage and good fortune) into an indisputable man for all seasons, is marvelous. No recent biographer has brought this much life to Jefferson's early days, through his tenure in the House of Burgesses to budding revolutionary; from the crafting of the Declaration of Independence to his role in France.

It is a shame Randall does not give us more balance in presenting the whole of Jefferson's life, but the founder of the University of Virginia was more than complex.

In his book, "American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson," Joseph J. Ellis rightly describes Jefferson as such, and Randall's earlier effort offers the reader an even grander panorama --indeed, Jefferson's entire life-- through which to observe this eccentric, frustrating and frustrated champion of an American agrarian utopia.

Thomas Jefferson cannot be praised highly enough, and Randall needn't have put Jefferson's overall image on a modest pedestal. But enough of the essential Jefferson, if any parts of him can be truly known, are shown here to the reader through Randall's minute research and sweeping presentation (Randall's stinting on Jefferson's life after about 1790 not withstanding).

The book isn't without faults (it isn't exactly a page-turner), but the observations offered equal or outweigh Randall's sometimes brilliant, often bumbling, prosaic narrative. Jefferson outshines the author, and like a Sphinx, raises more questions than are answered. Still, this may be the closest modern readers of a single volume biography will get to Jefferson's many worlds. Five stars for Jefferson, less two for Randall's uneven effort.

Rating:
Summary: A True Farce!
Review: If this is the best single volume biography on Thomas Jefferson then there is a lot of work left to do. Biography is about what men and women accomplish, what they do with their lives, how they live life and how they handle success and failure. This work of Randall's falls very far short on almost all scores.

To write over 560 pages of text and dedicate only 30 or so to his eight years as President of the United States and even less to his retirement when he did much valuable scientific work is really to miss the essence of what this man was all about. This man loved his country and contributed mightily to it. He formulated thoughts and ideas that still hold true today. Many of his policies are still in force. So where are they?

Not only does the author leave out so many of the crowning achievements of Jefferson's contributions to our American form of government, what he does cover is not adequately communicated. The writing is dull, cumbersome and boring. It is disjointed, uneven and confusing. Worse Randall actually plays with the facts. He denies Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings, a fact proved by DNA testing. He contends that the election of 1800 was really no big deal. And of course he would never admit to Jefferson's playing with freedom of the press. How silly. How misleading.

Of course Thomas Jefferson was a complex person. He was a politician; he always stood where the wind blew. But a biography like this, containing several material misstatements of fact while omitting some of the man's most amazing contributions to the foundation of our country, does no one any good at all. It misleads the reader, misrepresents the facts and denigrates the incredible life that was lived.

Rating:
Summary: A very thorough and detailed work.
Review: Other reviewers have complained that this book gives too brief a treatment to Jefferson's presidential and post-presidential years, and certainly, if you're interested in a thorough study of Jefferson's presidency, this isn't the book for you. But it is, after all, called "Thomas Jefferson: A Life", not "Thomas Jefferson: A President". About 50 pages are devoted to the eight years of Jefferson's presidency, out of a touch less than 600 pages. Not an unreasonable percentage to devote to eight years out of a touch over eighty. Granted, his post-presidential years are skimmed over quite briefly, and could have been given a bit more attention, but it's a minor quibble.

The major quibble is that the writing style can get a bit ponderous at times; I occasionally found myself struggling to keep my eyes open if at all drowsy. But the book is certainly worth a read for anyone interested in a close look at our third president, and the writer of the Declaration of Independence.

Rating:
Summary: Informative and thorough, but at the expense of flow
Review: Randall may have uncovered just about every fact there is about Thomas Jefferson. The fact that he dedicated pages evenly to each one is where this book fails. Thomas Jefferson could be the most complex figure in American history, but most people won't realize that fact from reading this biography because their minds will be numb from reading the first 300 pages of the book dedicated to his early law career that really played little role in the development of Jefferson. The author tries to justify his inclusion of all this material by theorizing that his contempt for the law system turned Jefferson's mind towards changing the system and thus revolution, and once committed to revolution his ideas on government were influenced by his law teachings, but dedicating 50 pages to Jefferson part in exploting a loop hole in Virinia law to help the First Families acquire more land serves more to make the reader flip through the pages scanning for interesting dates to resume reading. The real dissapointment in the book is that in spite of all this research, Randall fails to really tackle Jefferson's hypocricies and puzzling political movements. Perhaps he was unable to find good cause for Jefferson's motives, but to ignore his obvious faults makes this biography toothless. His borderline treasonous behavior as both Washington's Secretary of State and Adams' Vice-President, his obvious hypocrisy between champion of human equality and slaveowner, and his change of heart about the institution between his authorship of the Declaration and his ascension to the Presidency (along with the glossing over of his decision-making process during the Louisiana Purchase), are all controversial actions of a man usually considered "great" without much examination. This book would be the proper forum to defend the actions, explain the rationale behind them, or if failing to discover one, call out Jefferson for these personal blemishes. Randall does none of this, either lamely glossing over the points or omitting them altogether. After becoming president, the story gets so thin that it makes one wonder if Randall himself got bored with his research and writing of Jefferson's early career that he simply wanted to finish the book. He chose the wrong part of Jefferson's life to cut from. The book gets 2 stars for the information it contained, and doesn't get 3 more because of its presentation and lack of the information that it should have. There must be more engaging biographies of Jefferson than this one.

Rating:
Summary: Solid biography that focuses on pre-Presidential period
Review: Randall's biography is a great read and provides thorough coverage of the man as a lawyer, an intellect, an eloquent writer, and a diplomat. One who reads this work will find that Jefferson almost single-handedly developed the political structure and ideology upon which the United States was founded. I was especially intrigued in reading of Jefferson's personal relationships, with his wife, with a married woman, Maria Cosway with whom he had an affair while in Paris, and with other great Americans of his generation. The only thing I regret is that the book skims over Jefferson's life during his presidency and afterwards. Less than two chapters are devoted to these important periods of his life. Nevertheless, the reader will not be disappointed with this book since it is written with skill and thorough research.

Rating:
Summary: Solid biography that focuses on pre-Presidential period
Review: Randall's biography is a great read and provides thorough coverage of the man as a lawyer, an intellect, an eloquent writer, and a diplomat. One who reads this work will find that Jefferson almost single-handedly developed the political structure and ideology upon which the United States was founded. I was especially intrigued in reading of Jefferson's personal relationships, with his wife, with a married woman, Maria Cosway with whom he had an affair while in Paris, and with other great Americans of his generation. The only thing I regret is that the book skims over Jefferson's life during his presidency and afterwards. Less than two chapters are devoted to these important periods of his life. Nevertheless, the reader will not be disappointed with this book since it is written with skill and thorough research.

Rating:
Summary: Jefferson: Influences
Review: This book could have been better organized. The flow was circular and repetitious. Randall focuses too much on the things that influenced Jefferson, and not enough on his life. At every major (and sometimes minor) milestone in Jefferson's life, Randall takes us back to the passing of some law, or event that happened in the past that had an impact and explains it all in detail. It made it hard stay focused on the flow of time. The sections of the book that involved Jefferson's vacation were the most detailed and best to read. Jefferson's campaign for the 1800 election is given more attention than his time as part of the cabinet and as President. Randall improves over time -- I purchased Jefferson after reading "Washington: A Life".

Rating:
Summary: Thomas Jefferson: A Life
Review: Thomas Jefferson: A Life by Willard Sterne Randall is well researched, documented and written in a easily read narative. Many things can be said about Thomas Jefferson, but boring he is not.

This book trys to encompass a long and rich life of one of the most prolific writer of letters of any early President of the United States. We have a very good book for the early years of Jefferson, but toward the ebbing years of his life, we are not provided with as much. But the author covers the bases well and we are not disappointed. We can feel the pain as Jefferson gets older and his health is in decline.

Trying to get everything involved with Jefferson in a single-volume is quite a feat. Again this author's scholarship is evident as the narative is quite good and he gives us Jefferson in the flesh.

This is an excellent book bringing out Jefferson's playful intellegence and his struggle to maintain balance of his powerful emotions.

I enjoyed reading this brilliant work... I hope you do as well.

Rating:
Summary: Informative, eventually interesting but uneven biography
Review: Whatever you think of Thomas Jefferson, his life was hardly boring. Yet the first half of Mr. Randall's biography of Jefferson was painfully dull at times. I kept setting it aside to read other books and when I'd come back to it, I wondered why I was punishing myself. It took until almost halfway through the book, around the time Jefferson was getting involved in the Revolution, that I finally got into this book. Once I did, I enjoyed it a lot and breezed through the remainder of "Thomas Jefferson: A Life". But I couldn't help but wonder if this book contains too much about what I didn't care that much about and not enough about what I wanted to learn.

As other reviewers have lamented, there is one solitary chapter on Jefferson's two terms as President and a mere 10 pages on his post-Presidential years. Yet it took Mr. Randall about half the book to get to where Jefferson is participating in the Continental Congress and penning the Declaration of Independence. I learned more about Jefferson's post-Presidential years in John Adams' biography by David McCullough. I learned more about Jefferson the friend, colleague and politician in James Madison's biography by Ralph Ketcham.

I did enjoy the way Randall detailed Jefferson's writing of the Declaration. He showed how a multitude of ideas, theories and philosphies studied and meditated upon by Jefferson coalesced into that historic document.

If you are interested in Thomas Jefferson and are particularly interested in his childhood, his years as student and a young lawyer, you will love this book. Similarly, if you're particularly interested in Jefferson's years in France as ambassador, you'll get a lot out of this book. But if you're looking for more than a 50+ page treatment of his Presidency, you may wish to look elsewhere.