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National Bestseller
For a man who insisted that life on the public stage was not what he had in mind, Thomas Jefferson certainly spent a great deal of time in the spotlight--and not only during his active political career. After 1809, his longed-for retirement was compromised by a steady stream of guests and tourists who made of his estate at Monticello a virtual hotel, as well as by more than one thousand letters per year, most from strangers, which he insisted on answering personally. In his twilight years Jefferson was already taking on the luster of a national icon, which was polished off by his auspicious death (on July 4, 1896); and in the subsequent seventeen decades of his celebrity--now verging, thanks to virulent revisionists and television documentaries, on notoriety--has been inflated beyond recognition of the original person.
For the historian Joseph J. Ellis, the experience of writing about Jefferson was "as if a pathologist, just about to begin an autopsy, has discovered that the body on the operating table was still breathing." In American Sphinx, Ellis sifts the facts shrewdly from the legends and the rumors, treading a path between vilification and hero worship in order to formulate a plausible portrait of the man who still today "hover[s] over the political scene like one of those dirigibles cruising above a crowded football stadium, flashing words of inspiration to both teams." For, at the grass roots, Jefferson is no longer liberal or conservative, agrarian or industrialist, pro- or anti-slavery, privileged or populist. He is all things to all people. His own obliviousness to incompatible convictions within himself (which left him deaf to most forms of irony) has leaked out into the world at large--a world determined to idolize him despite his foibles.
From Ellis we learn that Jefferson sang incessantly under his breath; that he delivered only two public speeches in eight years as president, while spending ten hours a day at his writing desk; that sometimes his political sensibilities collided with his domestic agenda, as when he ordered an expensive piano from London during a boycott (and pledged to "keep it in storage"). We see him relishing such projects as the nailery at Monticello that allowed him to interact with his slaves more palatably, as pseudo-employer to pseudo-employees. We grow convinced that he preferred to meet his lovers in the rarefied region of his mind rather than in the actual bedchamber. We watch him exhibiting both great depth and great shallowness, combining massive learning with extraordinary naïveté, piercing insights with self-deception on the grandest scale. We understand why we should neither beatify him nor consign him to the rubbish heap of history, though we are by no means required to stop loving him. He is Thomas Jefferson, after all--our very own sphinx.
For a man who insisted that life on the public stage was not what he had in mind, Thomas Jefferson certainly spent a great deal of time in the spotlight--and not only during his active political career. After 1809, his longed-for retirement was compromised by a steady stream of guests and tourists who made of his estate at Monticello a virtual hotel, as well as by more than one thousand letters per year, most from strangers, which he insisted on answering personally. In his twilight years Jefferson was already taking on the luster of a national icon, which was polished off by his auspicious death (on July 4, 1896); and in the subsequent seventeen decades of his celebrity--now verging, thanks to virulent revisionists and television documentaries, on notoriety--has been inflated beyond recognition of the original person.
For the historian Joseph J. Ellis, the experience of writing about Jefferson was "as if a pathologist, just about to begin an autopsy, has discovered that the body on the operating table was still breathing." In American Sphinx, Ellis sifts the facts shrewdly from the legends and the rumors, treading a path between vilification and hero worship in order to formulate a plausible portrait of the man who still today "hover[s] over the political scene like one of those dirigibles cruising above a crowded football stadium, flashing words of inspiration to both teams." For, at the grass roots, Jefferson is no longer liberal or conservative, agrarian or industrialist, pro- or anti-slavery, privileged or populist. He is all things to all people. His own obliviousness to incompatible convictions within himself (which left him deaf to most forms of irony) has leaked out into the world at large--a world determined to idolize him despite his foibles.
From Ellis we learn that Jefferson sang incessantly under his breath; that he delivered only two public speeches in eight years as president, while spending ten hours a day at his writing desk; that sometimes his political sensibilities collided with his domestic agenda, as when he ordered an expensive piano from London during a boycott (and pledged to "keep it in storage"). We see him relishing such projects as the nailery at Monticello that allowed him to interact with his slaves more palatably, as pseudo-employer to pseudo-employees. We grow convinced that he preferred to meet his lovers in the rarefied region of his mind rather than in the actual bedchamber. We watch him exhibiting both great depth and great shallowness, combining massive learning with extraordinary naïveté, piercing insights with self-deception on the grandest scale. We understand why we should neither beatify him nor consign him to the rubbish heap of history, though we are by no means required to stop loving him. He is Thomas Jefferson, after all--our very own sphinx.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this book, which read like a a novel. Ellis found negatives in Jefferson where deserved, and there was the constant comparison (in my mind) throughout the book where Jefferson would be in today's American political structure. I agree with a reviewer who said Jefferson would be appalled by today's politics of the Democratic and Republican parties, and would propably be Libertarian. But then again, Jefferson seemed to be so pragmatic (was the Louisiana Purchase constitutional and/or did Jefferson just want the land for American expansion?), that he could be in either major party (Republican for his strong anti-government views or Democratic for his no prayers in school views). Clearly, though, he would not be a television President, and, thus not electable today. That he was a brilliant writer is indisputable and being the first anti-Federalist President carrying the banner for less government and more individual soverignty makes him a stand-out in that era of brilliant Founding Fathers. Ellis points out that his political philosophy cerainly was inconsistent, and that Jefferson's personality did not lead him to "enjoy" conflict as much as John Adams,leading to the inescapable conclusion that Jefferson was a political philosopher laying the foundation for one major segment of American political thought for the next two centuries. The book did not clarify Jefferson's mental character enough. More about his family background, how he reacted personally to his wife's and daughter's deaths would haave been helpful for this analysis. Why he apparantly lacked "fire in the belly" to take on the issue of slavery when he was President, of which he disapproved but certainly condoned. There was also no mention of the events of the American Revolution, which I find to be the only major failing of the book, as it would have put the protagonists more in the context of that era, and, I believe, made Jefferson stand out more that he already does.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I salute Professor Ellis for a valiant, and very readable, effort to plumb the mind of Jefferson without resorting to misty-eyed "Founding Father" sentiments and myth, as most Jefferson biographers invariably do, albeit often unintentionally. I disagree with the reviewer who found that the author dodged the tough issues and the reviewer who kindly stated that Professor Ellis "demystified" Jefferson.
I believe that the book very effectively illuminates the context in which Jefferson expressed and acted upon (or failed to act upon) many of his most cherished ideas and beliefs. What troubles me about the book, however, is its implicit suggestion that Jefferson in a vague sense was essentially a failure who, incredibly, was perpetually "out of the loop" (as we say today) when it came to the critical points of history that occurred in his time, except perhaps for the Declaration of Indpendence. But even there, Professor Ellis reduces Jefferson's role to a quasi-plagiarist who, in apparent denial of his own lack of creativity, publicly seethes at the thought of his fellow revolutionaries editing what Professor Ellis describes as, and what they therefore must also have known was, essentially George Mason's work!
According to Professor Ellis, Jefferson's view of the "Spirit of '76" was a little delusional and inferior to Adams' more accurate recollections. The book basically dismisses Jefferson as a bumbler when it comes to constitutional questions, although Madison was without peer in that regard. John Marshall was clever and legally facile, but not necessarily evenhanded in his constitutional interpretations. As to the role of the new government, Professor Ellis paints Jefferson as almost an irrational "spoiler" who had no positive vision about where he wanted to lead the country.
Perhaps I'm overreading Professor Ellis' conclusions, which, I am sure, he did not intend to come across the way I think they did. On the other hand, Professor Ell! is does usually place Jefferson on the wrong end of the stick when he comes to his closure on the issues he chose to address, such as the American and French Revolutions, slavery, the role of government, North-South relations, the role of the West, finances (personal and governmental), farming, political thought, politics, constitutional thought, sex, family, and friendship. While his analysis of each of these issues is interesting, plausible, and usually even-handed on the surface, Professor Ellis ultimately seems willing to cast as historical fact conclusions that are, in the end, also only "reasonably speculative," like those he admittedly offers with respect to Sally Hemmings.
This book must be read, but with the understanding that if Professor Ellis's treatment of Jefferson is 100% correct, then perhaps rather than building a statue of John Adams next to the Jefferson Memorial, as Professor Ellis suggests in his John Adams' biography, we should remove Mr. Jefferson's statue altogether and let it quitely sink into the Tidal Basin. Professor Ellis, I believe, gave a great effort, but in the end got so close that his view became myopic, with the result being that Jefferson slipped deftly through his analytical fingers.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Excellent book about a very real and three-dimensional man. "Historians", ie. earlier commentators, may scoff and say that nothing new was revealed or that they already knew all that was written here, but that says nothing about how good this particular book was. Mr. Ellis tells a wonderful story here and reveals to the rest of us "commoners" the human being behind the historical figure.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Ellis reveals a brilliant but complicated individual
Joseph Ellis is without a doubt one of the most qualified historians in this nation to study Thomas Jefferson the individual. Read more
Published on 28 April 2005 by Bert Ruiz
The Inscrutable and Timeless Sphynx of America
No one has impressed his personality into the American social consciousness and the reality of its political system as much as Thomas Jefferson. Read more
Published on 26 July 1999
A Interesting Report
Thomas Jefferson is a personal hero. So is one of his most distinguished detractors, Theodore Roosevelt. Read more
Published on 26 April 1999
Historically enveloping, yet personally attractive.
Joseph Ellis has managed to incorporate within one volume the details that make History fascinating, and the nuances that make it baffling. Read more
Published on 26 Mar 1999
A fascinating look at a complex character
By choosing specific periods of time in Jefferson's life, and not apologizing for skipping over his less-important years, Ellis gets to the root of Thomas Jefferson's personal and... Read more
Published on 2 Mar 1999
A great book on the Jeffersonian Era
This is a great book on Jefferson for those who don't know much about Jefferson. Jefferson wasn't the saint that everyone imagined him to be. Read more
Published on 4 Dec 1998
Tries too much for closure
I enjoyed the first part of this book better than the second. In the beginning, Ellis tries to present a balanced view of Jefferson: a great man with contradictions. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 1998
Pretty good, but could have been a little less boring
This book was an interesting approach to the life of Thomas Jefferson by looking at his character rather than an entire life history with unnecessary details. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 1998
Very well written and balanced biography.
I found this book to be both very well written and also very interesting. The author clearly tries his utmost to be fair to his subject, whose personality and times were so... Read more
Published on 22 Oct 1998
Author tries but fails to reveal or discover anything new.
Last month we discussed this book in my History Book discussion group. Those unfamiliar with other workers on Jefferson or who are not historians will find it interesting and... Read more
Published on 16 Sep 1998
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