American Sphinx : The Character of Thomas Jefferson

Rating:
Summary: Enlightening...
Review: Ellis' approach to Jeffereson was a breath of fresh air compared to most biographies. Instead of belaboring every exact detail in "matter of fact" form, he dissects Jefferson's character and analyzes the questions "why, who and how." The result is a biography/character profile that is instantly engrossing and which hold your attention until the last page.

As an American Revolution enthusiast, I can say that this well-written book is a must read for anyone.

Rating:
Summary: The book stands on it own!!!!!
Review: I agree with many of the below reviewers that the book is "incomplete", in that several major periods in Jefferson's life are totally ignored. This may leave a first time Jefferson reader feeling that he or she is missing something.

However, that is an easy and misguided criticism of the book. When I looked back at the book to do this review I realized how much of Jefferson's life it did cover and how deep and basic an understanding of what Jefferson was about I had gained. The author take five periods in Jefferson life. Each of the period chapters is further broken up into separate, almost stand-alone sections, so that by the time you've finished the book, you have covered perhaps 25-30 aspects of Jefferson's life in some detail. So, saying the book is "incomplete" misses what is point. There is plenty of meat there.

As the author takes pains to point out in the prologue, he asks you to enjoy this book because he goes beyond just getting the facts out. He builds arguments and makes you see trends in Jefferson's thinking and actions. By the end of it, I had the feeling that when I read Merrill Peterson's 1000-page gold standard ("complete" book) on Jefferson, that I would have a greater recall of events and understanding. I was inspired to read further.

The writing is good and the little chapters within the bigger chpaters make nice reading breaks.

As an aside, I had read Chernow's Hamilton just before reading this book, and after Chernow beats up Jefferson, Ellis continued the pummeling. I'm definitely going to read Peterson because there is so much essential to the beginning of the USA in Jefferson, but the negativeness (it appears deservedly so) slightly dimmed my enthusiasm.

Lastly, you should know that initially I was troubled because I could not tell you if you needed to read a "primer" book on Jefferson before you start this book, as several other reviewers have insisted. However, after thinking about it for a while, it is clear that the conclusions that Ellis draws and so well illustrates are "self-evident". The book stands on its own.

Rating:
Summary: a better understanding
Review: I imagine that in order to spend months and years researching and writing about an historical figure you must admire that person immensely, otherwise it would be terribly difficult to retain any interest. In most biographies, this usually translates into a deification of the subject. Not so in Joseph J. Ellis' AMERICAN SPHINX: THE CHARACTER OF THOMAS JEFFERSON.

I'll confess that Jefferson has not always been one of my favorite founding fathers. I have always thought of him as duplicitous, racist, anachronistic in his thinking, vain, and cowardly in a way. As a New Yorker, I've always been irked by his bad-mouthing of the city, and by his insistence that the capitol of the new nation be moved from here to Washington, D.C. [Good riddance, by the way. We did just fine without being the capitol city, thank you very much ;-) ] And as I am a devout admirer of Alexander Hamilton... need I say more?

After reading Ellis' other great book, FOUNDING BROTHERS, I began to get a more rounded look at Jefferson, one that shed a little more light on the human forces that may have been working on him. Then I read McCullough's brilliant biography of Jefferson's close friend (at times), John Adams. This led me to read this biography, and I am glad I did. I finally was given a better understanding of the sage of Monticello. Ellis does an admirable job of conveying an honest and balanced view of the chief author of the Declaration of Independence, without resorting to hero-worship, as do most biographers. At times, the writing was very moving, especially as Jefferson's loved ones began dying around him. I'm still not crazy about the guy, but I have a better appreciation of him.

Ellis' writing is brisk, loaded with telling anecdotes, and never attempts to impress the reader with the research he has done. Other biographers would do well to follow Joseph Ellis' example. And lovers of American History would do well to read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Thomas Jefferson Survives
Review: If you've read about the Founding Fathers, you can't help but notice that Thomas Jefferson has an eerie elusive quality that the others just don't seem to possess. You can figure out Ben Franklin, George Washington, James Madison, etc.. Jefferson, however, seems to be someone who you can't quite pin down or so easily lay claim to by today's standards. As was once said of William James, "He's just like a blob of mercury, you cannot put a mental finger upon him." It probably has something to do with, as Ellis states in the book, the fact that he was far more inclined to rhetoric and theory than he was to the tedious gears of hand-on politics.

I was expecting this book to cross the line in relation to dragging Jefferson into the present and beating him up a bit, but it kept within reasonable boundaries without either unrealistic hero worship or a foolish attempt at character assasination. Very readable and informative.

Rating:
Summary: Must Read for TJ and US Revolution History Fans
Review: Joseph Ellis projects an interesting analysis of the illusive Thomas Jefferson in "American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson." Brilliant but contradictory, most historians glorified the author of the Declaration of Independence for nearly 200 years. Recently, with the emergence of John Adams as an equally accepted visionary Founder, the strange and conflicting sides of Jefferson have been given equal attention to those that reflect the genius from Monticello, Virginia.

More than any other American historical figure, Jefferson was incredibly aware of his future role in history, and thereby his legacy. Much of the documented historical record, both that written by him and that written to him, reflect the facts that he chose what future generations would see. Ellis breaks down five periods of Jefferson's life: (1) the period around the writing of the Declaration, (2) the years in Paris as American envoy, (3) the years in semi-seclusion during the second Washington administration, (4) his first Presidential term, (5) and his years in retirement the decade prior to his death. The main premises of Ellis' work are that Jefferson was elusive in description, contradictory in philosophy, and often devious in action.

After reading Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis (see my review dated 7/23/01) I had enormous expectations for his previously penned biography of Thomas Jefferson. It is a good scholarly account, but falls short of the enormously readable "Founding Brothers" work that won the Pulitzer Prize. Ellis teases you by revealing the many two-faced aspects of Jefferson's character, but shies away from drawing the conclusions that Jefferson's personality was bizarre. The third President was generally a person who could make himself believe anything he wanted, that his position and beliefs were always righteous, as long as it helped him get or preserve what he wanted.

Ellis does reveal the many aspects that prove Jefferson such a contradiction. Those include his inability to speak in public compared to the tremendous talent as a writer and analyst. The fact that he betrayed one of his most loyal and devoted friends for decades (John Adams), to secure the goals of the Virginians in the roots of the Founding, also speak loudly to his complex nature. What most people do not realize was that though he was extremely reticent that our country not become encumbered to a national financial consolidation, he was among the most atrocious of debtors and virtually ruined his family through decades of irresponsible personal spending. Finally, everyone now knows his amazingly illogical position regarding slavery, and the facts proven by modern DNA mapping techniques that demonstrate that he fathered children by his slave Sally Hemings.

I rate this book most accurately at 4.00 out of 5.00 stars. It is a must read for devotees of the Revolutionary period, and for those interested in Jefferson or John Adams. Ellis could have rated higher by really getting in depth in the many complex facets of Jefferson's personality, ability the author demonstrates better in other works. The book is worth reading and valuable for reference work.

Rating:
Summary: Eternal Sunshine of the Jeffersonian Mind
Review: There are few books I have anticipated reading as much as "American Sphinx". I devoured Joseph J. Ellis's Pulitzer winning masterpiece, "Founding Fathers: The Revolutionary Generation" during my long awaited trip to America, where I visited many of the historical places of the American Revolution and Civil War. Reading about the Adams-Jefferson meeting in Philadelphia's Market Street, while in a hotel room only a few blocks away was exhilarating. The Independence Visitor Center bookstore contains many books about the American Revolution, and I was mighty tempted to buy Ellis's biography of the Philosopher King from Monticello. Finally, my semi-principle of breaks between books by a single author won the day. Only three months later did Amazon deliver "American Sphinx".

Ellis's biography of Thomas Jefferson is not as good a book as "Founding Fathers". I am not a big reader of biographies, so that may be part of it, but there is less content here than in "Founding Brothers". The latter book is shorter and has a wider scope, and for the most part, the more in debt look on Jefferson doesn't give comparable insight.

But "American Sphinx" is a very, very good book. We encounter Jefferson in five periods of his life: Drafting the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, watching the burgeoning French Revolution while trying in vain to promote American interests in 1780s Paris, Congealing the Anti-Federalist opposition from his rectitude in Monticello, Mastering American destiny in his first term as President of the United States, and Spending his last years in retirement, debt, and construction of the University of Virginia from 1816 to 1826.

In all of the chapters, Ellis avoids strict chronology for a theme based approach, discussing political event (his opposition to Federalism, the Louisiana purchase), personal life (his did-they-or-didn't-they romance with Maria Cosway, quarrels and friendship with John Adams, and of course, the Sally Hemings scandal), interests (primarily architecture), and political philosophy (strangely Whiggish and unrealistic).

I think the Jeffersonian Mind, as described by Ellis, is the most extraordinary element of his character. Some people held Jefferson to be a hypocrite, adapting his message to different audiences. Ellis, though, sees it as a capacity for self delusion. Jefferson had a "deep distaste for sharp disagreement and [a] bedrock belief that harmony was nature's way of signaling the arrival of truth" (p. 106). This capacity for self delusion allowed him to lead a political party while claiming that "If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all" (quoted on p. 124), it allowed him to deny having hired James Callander to character assassinate John Adams, even as he did exactly that, and most famously of all, it effected his treatment of slavery.

The counterpoint of Jefferson dislike of argument was that he saw a great dichotomy between those on his side and the other side. Jefferson saw the world in moral absolutes, the constant clashes of Good vs. Evil, with himself conveniently on the side of the angels. Fighting George III's despotism and opposing the Federalists was part of the same struggle - of the "Pure Republicans" against the consolidationist, aristocratic monarchists. That was always a strange position for the Aristocratic Jefferson to adopt, and always only tenuously connected with reality - but never less so then in his final years, when he had to cast in the role of the enemies the Northern opposers of the expansion of slavery.

Jefferson managed to do just that. Although he had proposed abolition of slavery throughout the territories of the Unites states back in the 1780s, and although he was responsible for the Louisiana purchase of 1803, Jefferson nonetheless saw the Missouri Crisis as a "fire bell in the night" (quoted on p. 306). New York Congressman James Tallmadge's proposal to prohibit slavery in Missouri as a condition for its admission as a state was merely a "party trick". Northern politicians cynically took "advantage of the virtuous feelings of the people" as a new cover in the quest for power, consolidation and despotism. The angels were on the side of the lash.

For me, one of the most intriguing things of Jefferson is this image - Jefferson the genuine radical, who could sincerely maintain his cherished illusions regardless of reality. Of all the Founding Fathers, Ellis, suggests, Jefferson was the most radical one, believing in the true exercise of popular democracy, and of an eternal struggle between Good and Evil, of which he was the ultimate judge. This is the Jefferson who boldly states: "The tree of Liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" (on p. 118).

For all of its egalitarian and radical potential, the American Revolution was headed by pragmatic and practical leaders who led it towards stability and triumph. But neither in temperament nor in thinking was Jefferson one of them. Had he been born in another time, at another place, would Jefferson have been not an American Sphinx, but an American Lenin?

Rating:
Summary: The American Dreamer
Review: This book is not so much a biography as it is a series of core samples being taken by a geologist. The reader who is not familiar with Jefferson's life and career will certainly be frustrated by this book, which dips in and out of the Jeffersonian chronology, taking samples of the Jeffersonian psyche as it goes along.

What emerges is the portrait of a man who was spectacularly full of contradictions, but also possessed the power of self-rationalization (some might say self-delusion) that allowed him basically to shoehorn the real world into the dream world he had constructed in his own idealistic flights of fancy.

To say that Jefferson had a "pie in the sky" mentality is something of an understatement. After reading some of his notions of how the country ought to be run, I found myself feeling grateful that Jefferson was safely stashed in France while more realistic & pragmatic men like Madison & Hamilton worked to assemble the US Constitution. There are times when one is left wondering if Jefferson had even the foggiest notion of what the provisions of the Constitution even were, as Madison repeatedly is depicted bringing his mentor back to earth as Jefferson's radical imagination runs amok about what the nature of the republic ought to be.

It is probably a good thing that Jefferson's ability to construct working political models was almost nil, because Ellis demonstrates pretty convincingly that Jefferson was one of the true radicals of his generation. At times he reminds me of Marxist ideologues and counterculture hippies, who are so committed to keeping the purity of their ideology that they have no earthly idea how to apply it to the real world that the rest of us exist in. While the other Founding Fathers found that compromises were necessary (whether that meant building a strong trading relationship with Great Britain, or creating a government that was more centralized than that under the Articles of Confederation), Jefferson remained committed throughout his life to his idealized notion of what republic of 1776 was really all about. Anyone who disagreed with his view of true republican principles was either a traitor to the Revolution or a lost, misguided soul waiting to be converted to the Jeffersonian True Faith. In any case, the notion that the Other Side might have valid points about the nature of the republic was simply not a notion that Jefferson could ever consider.

Nonetheless, Ellis shows Jefferson repeatedly violating his own principles, with acts such as the Louisiana Purchase (which did as much as to centralize the federal government as anything Hamilton ever did) to trying make the judicial branch subservient to the whims of the executive branch. With the Louisiana Purchase, one sees the emergence of the Jefferson the pragmatic politician, yet Jefferson would never concede that this was anything of the sort. With some amazingly dexterous self-rationalization, Jefferson was able to convince himself that he was remaining true to the republican ideal, no matter what the facts appeared to be.

That is probably why he appeals so much to the American psyche, Ellis suspects. Because Jefferson always remained a dreamer, he could be all things to all people --- he can tell us exactly what we want to hear, no matter what the facts appear to be. Jefferson is the perfect politician, and Ellis argues that he probably would be quite successful on today's campaign trail. We grow weary of nuts-and-bolts policy wonks like Madison, which is probably why nobody makes pilgrimages to Montpelier. We much prefer our dreamers.

Rating:
Summary: Dry, but overall interesting
Review: This book took me about four months to read. I kept picking other books up and forgetting about this one. So it is not addictively readable, to say the least. In fact, it was difficult for me to read more than 15 pages at a time. I would find my attention wandering or my mind falling asleep.

Dryness and drab writing aside, the book in the end was interesting. It is not a conventional biography. Unlike historians such as David McCulloch, Joseph Ellis digs deep into the story and into the character of Thomas Jefferson. It does not follow Jefferson from birth to death, chronicling life events. Instead, Ellis picks seminal points of Jefferson's life: his move to Paris, the Constitutional Convention, his stint as President, and his retirement to Monticello, and then examines Jefferson's attitudes, actions, and writings from these time periods to create a picture of the man. It answers the question "Who was Thomas Jefferson?" more thoroughly than any biography I have ever read.

Ellis's Jefferson is not hugely likeable, but is very human. Ellis certainly succeeds in knocking Jefferson fro his hallowed pedastal, but only in making him human and fully fleshed, which in the end only can do Jefferson justice.

After finishing this book (finally), I feel I have a pretty clear picture of Jefferson and his legacy, which makes me feel this read was very worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Dry, but overall interesting
Review: This book took me about four months to read. I kept picking other books up and forgetting about this one. So it is not addictively readable, to say the least. In fact, it was difficult for me to read more than 15 pages at a time. I would find my attention wandering or my mind falling asleep.

Dryness and drab writing aside, the book in the end was interesting. It is not a conventional biography. Unlike historians such as David McCulloch, Joseph Ellis digs deep into the story and into the character of Thomas Jefferson. It does not follow Jefferson from birth to death, chronicling life events. Instead, Ellis picks seminal points of Jefferson's life: his move to Paris, the Constitutional Convention, his stint as President, and his retirement to Monticello, and then examines Jefferson's attitudes, actions, and writings from these time periods to create a picture of the man. It answers the question "Who was Thomas Jefferson?" more thoroughly than any biography I have ever read.

Ellis's Jefferson is not hugely likeable, but is very human. Ellis certainly succeeds in knocking Jefferson fro his hallowed pedastal, but only in making him human and fully fleshed, which in the end only can do Jefferson justice.

After finishing this book (finally), I feel I have a pretty clear picture of Jefferson and his legacy, which makes me feel this read was very worthwhile.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Character Study of Thomas Jefferson
Review: This is a well-balanced and fair study of Thomas Jefferson. As another reviewer notes it is not a biography, but neither does it claim to be. Rather it is a careful, incisive look at what must be one of the more fascinating, and troubling, of the American founders.

Elsewhere it has been noted that John Adams is undergoing a mostly positive re-evaluation while Jefferson's, perhaps since the publication of Fawn Brodie's book in 1974, has been in decline. Bernard Bailyn in "To Begin the World Anew", puts Ellis among the Jefferson naysayers but I do not see that. Certainly there are those who have been hard on Jefferson. Ron Chernow in his biography of Alexander Hamilton, for example. Ellis appears to admire Jefferson and tries to work out why such an outstanding figure would stoop to being so duplicitous.

Ellis faces all the contradictions and problems head on in way that I feel Bailyn in his book does not. He works out a plausible explanation that he further develops in another excellent book "Founding Brothers".

I found Ellis' writing style took a little getting used to but it grew on me and became quite involving. It was involving, and rather convincing, not only due to the style but also by the force of his ideas and insights.

This appears to me to be one of those books that anyone else who subsequently writes on the subject has to look at before writing.