Rating: 
Summary: Reader Beware
Review: Ellis has a problem. He makes claims that he can's support, and he makes claims that are inconsistent. To borrow one of his techniques, he writes like a pathological liar. He seems to forget what he has said from page to page or even from the start of a paragraph to the end - more interested in calling attention to himself than he is to the truth. I recognize the pattern. I was a pathological liar once.
Here are some examples. On the last paragraph of page 87 (paperback edition), he claims that Jefferson had compartmentalized conflicting beliefs. That may be the case, but the rest of the paragraph is poor evidence at best.
On the bottom of 123 he says that Jefferson's remarks on ratification were inconsistent and contradictory. The evidence? He changed his mind about the timing of support: oppose after 9 states ratify to force a bill of rights, and later oppose from the beginning to force a boll of rights. What a flip-flop. I'm shocked.
I don't have the page now but he's says that Jefferson withdrew into an emotional shell when Martha died to protect himself from future hurt. Then a few pages later he describes Jefferson's intimate relationship with the Adams family, and then his heads-over-heels crush on a young woman in Paris.
I'm suspicious of the way he footnotes. He begins a paragraph with a few quotes from Jefferson's correspondence. Then he psychoanalyzes Jefferson extensively making claims that aren't supported by the quotes, and then ends the paragraph with a footnote. The footnote gives the citation for the quotes early in the paragraph but is mum on his interpretation.
A couple more. The first paragraph pn page 137. He quotes a letter from Madison. Some of the quote is in italics added by Ellis to indicate coded language without saying how he knows what words are coded or where he found the key to decode the language. It reminds me of the movie, A Beuatiful Mind. He uses the coded language to state that Jefferson expected to retire and return to Paris. Wow.
I'm on page 190; it's 1797 or there abouts. Ellis is claiming that Jefferson is coming out of retirement to solve the nation's debt problem because he can't solve his own debt problem. What hogwash. Mr. Ellis, there are a myriad of other explanations. Perhaps, Jefferson's financial problems made him acutely aware of the problems debt represented to the nation. He wasn't entering public life to duck the problem of his private debt. Given the acerbic mood at the time, entering public life would make it harder to confront his own debt demon.
That's enough for now. I will continue reading because I told my nephew, a history student, that I would. Keeping ones word is such a burden.
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.
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 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: 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 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 chapters 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 (I read the one by Bernstein--see my review on that book for a chuckle) 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: Not a Good Introduction to Jefferson. A Good 2nd or 3rd Book
Review: This is not a general biography of Jefferson. Instead, it is a study of the character of Thomas Jefferson. In that respect, it is a great book (though pessimistic), but it is not a good introduction to Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, America's third president, and so much more. If you are reading about Jefferson for the first time, this book is not for you.
For a good first book on Jefferson, I suggest Bernstein's concise "Thomas Jefferson." You may also want to consider Malone's masterpiece six-volume biography of Jefferson, which won the Pulitzer Prize. (The first two volumes are simply superb: "Jefferson the Virginian" and "Jefferson and the Rights of Man").
This book struck me as the equivalent of a book about Mozart's character. Would that be a fair assessment of the life and music of Mozart, as well as the historical impact of his work?
Readers not familiar with the Revolutionary War period should realize that Jefferson and his allies (like Madison) clashed with Hamilton and his allies (like Adams). Historians tend to take sides (slightly) when writing about the founders.
Ellis admittedly leans towards Adams. He wrote a book about Adams to revive Adams' reputation (deservedly so) which Ellis felt was overshadowed by Jefferson's legacy. Chernow's biography of Hamilton also is too harsh on Jefferson. Therefore, it is no surprise that people who read this book come away with a less than impressive impression of Jefferson.
This is a brilliant book about a certain view of Jefferson and would be a good 2nd or 3rd read about Jefferson. However, I recommend first reading Bernstein's brief "Thomas Jefferson" or Malone's biography. Then read Ellis' book on Jefferson.
One last thought. Ellis is one of the greatest writers on the revolution, and I very much enjoy his books. I highly recommend his books. Just keep in mind that he seems to lean slightly to the side that opposes Jefferson - which makes things all the more interesting!
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.
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