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American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, by Joseph J. Ellis
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Review
“Fascinating … an erudite and illuminating study.” —The New York Times “This elegant book on Jefferson sets a standard—history at its best.” —Chicago Tribune Editor’s Choice “A brilliant, unconventional look at Jefferson … beautifully written, cogently argues, full of both zealous scholarship and lively imagination.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer “Magnificent.… Ellis has a Jeffersonian gift for language.” —Newsweek “Lively and provocative … first-rate.” —David McCullough
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From the Inside Flap
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 intothe 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 naivete, 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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Product details
Paperback: 440 pages
Publisher: Vintage Books (April 7, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0679764410
ISBN-13: 978-0679764410
Product Dimensions:
5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.1 out of 5 stars
247 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#37,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
First of all, this is not your standard biography. Let's just get that out of the way right at the beginning. If you want to learn about the complete life of Jefferson, don't come here. Instead, this book is an attempt at a detailed look at the evolving character, changing thoughts, and driving opinions of Thomas Jefferson at various points in his life. It opens with Jefferson's most famous achievement, the writing of the Declaration of Independence. What was the man's worldview at the time of this writing? What were his motivations and passions? How did his view of the past effect the way he thought about his present? How did the circumstances in his life at that moment affect the words that he wrote into what is essentially our country's birth certificate? These are the kinds of questions that are explored in this book. The book then jumps ahead several years to Jefferson's time in Paris during the Revolutionary war. Then the Jefferson's retirement during Washington's second term as president. Then to Jefferson's own first term as President. Then, to his final retirement. And at each stop along the way, the same questions that are listed above are explored again.Mr. Ellis does an impressive job of attempting to get into the mind of a most elusive man. By the author's own admission, Thomas Jefferson is a confusing character, perhaps the most confusing person in American history. The man who clearly stated that all men are created equal held on to hundreds of slaves. The man who tried to cry against the slave trade as a moral evil had no problem in selling off some of his own slaves. The man who would write and preach about moral purity would have a decades-long obsession with another man's wife. The man who saw it absolutely necessary to limit the power of the federal government would find a way to excuse the exercise of more federal power than any of his presidential predecessors during the episode of the Louisiana Purchase. But the author takes great pains to portray how each one of these and many other seeming contradictions in Jefferson's life were accompanied by huge amounts of internal intellectual and moral questionings. It would be extremely rare to see Jefferson proceeding with any huge decision until he had wrestled with it in his mind and found a way to make it fit with his own personal set of convictions. While others might, a frequently did, spot contradictions in his character, he himself was convinced that his actions did not contradict themselves but rather that he always acted in accordance with what was right in his own eyes.And ultimately, this is how normal people act. We don't always do what we or other people expect, but we usually do what we think is right. The author consistently shows that Jefferson would constantly do what he believed to be right, even if it was sometimes based on a worldview that was not entirely compatible with the real world. But I will say no more on that. I don't want to spoil the entire book for you.I walk away from this book satisfied that I have a greater understanding of the character and thinking of one of the greatest American's ever. The only reason this book gets four rather than five stars is that it does get repetitious looking at the same set of questions over and over again during the different time periods of Jefferson's life. However, since these questions serve to support the author's argument, you cannot really fault him for continuously referring to them.
American Sphinx presents an insightful portrayal of not only one of America's most beloved founding fathers, but of the politics and political figures that influenced the times and the founding of America. Unlike other biographies I started and abandoned about Jefferson, American Sphinx is not written as a text book, but rather more as psychological drama offering a deeper understanding of the philosophies behind the shaping of America's political system, with reverberations that continue today.
Author Joseph J. Ellis is a fantastic writer, conscious of prose, and not afraid to liberally showcase it. With American Sphinx he gives us a critical and contrarian look at one of our most beloved founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson. This book does not seek to change the reader's mind about it's subject but rather offer a deeper understanding of him. It shows Thomas Jefferson in a light most scholars have been afraid to shed. Ellis's treatment of Jefferson is honest, frank, sincere, and most importantly, well-rounded. What he has done in American Sphinx is commendable and deserving of sterling longevity. Ellis is a historian who is unintimidated and is prepared to ask certain forbidden questions. This is not to say that Ellis makes Jefferson out to be anything less than what he is; an American hero. He just allows us the good fortune found in candid intimacy and honesty paramount to fully understanding him. And it is a critical honesty that most scholars have kept to themselves. Speaking personally, I completely support Jefferson's radical utopian views, I find them sound and inherently emblematic of all I hold dear. His stance on generational sovereignty is something I believe in with all of my heart, being, and soul. I believe that Jefferson was not only a prophetic man, but a figure of brilliant and timeless ideologies. One of the greatest philosophically political minds America has ever known.Now, I don't need a book to agree with my every sentiment. I don't need an author to tell me I'm right. What I need from a book, about an already well-covered subject, is something new and something different. Sometimes I need to be shown the opposition. Ellis has made quite a handful of Jeffersonians upset with American Sphinx. It's not just because he claims that Jefferson's more radical beliefs were baseless, even though he often does categorize them as such, it is because Mr. Ellis makes a damn good argument to the popular contrary. He hasn't changed my views, not even in the slightest, but it wasn't his goal to try to change them at all. Jeffersonian readers need to come down off the defensive and allow for rationality to enter the realm of contemporary scholarship. The goal of Ellis was not to kick dirt on Jefferson's legacy. His goal was to analyze and inquire. His critical look at the foundation of American radicalism was a civil and welcome glance that was taken into kind consideration.An eloquent book about principality and masks and several truths. In the words of it's author, "All I can say in my defense is that the subject of the chapters that follow, while great, is not a statue".
At times, I found this biography had moments of brilliance, but I still came away from American Sphinx feeling like I just couldn't get a handle on who exactly Thomas Jefferson was. This might not be the author's fault, but I did feel that shorter chapters, tighter writing and more defining themes to Jefferson's life rather than a chronological structure would have helped. Mostly, I felt suspicious of the author's objectivity because of Ellis's steadfast support for Jefferson over the Sally Hemings' affair. Although Ellis presents arguments that show the affair was possible, he insists it is inconsistent with Jefferson's personality, which always seems to be contradictory and conflicted. DNA evidence hadn't come into the picture when Ellis wrote his biography, but Ellis still could have avoided writing himself into a corner by presenting his own opinion about the Jefferson/Hemings relationship.
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