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Books : American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas JeffersonIn association with Amazon.comby: Joseph J. Ellis  List Price: $15.95 Amazon.com's Price: $10.85 You Save: $5.10 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 973.46092 EAN: 9780679764410 ISBN: 0679764410 Label: Vintage Manufacturer: Vintage Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 464 Publication Date: April 07, 1998 Publisher: Vintage Release Date: April 07, 1998 Studio: Vintage Sales Rank: 4634 Related Items:
Editorial Review: Product Description: 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. Amazon.com Review: Well timed to coincide with Ken Burns's documentary (on which the author served as a consultant), this new biography doesn't aim to displace the many massive tomes about America's third president that already weigh down bookshelves. Instead, as suggested by the subtitle--"The Character of Thomas Jefferson"--Ellis searches for the "living, breathing person" underneath the icon and tries to elucidate his actual beliefs. Jefferson's most ardent admirers may find this perspective too critical, but Ellis's portrait of a complex, sometimes devious man who both sought and abhorred power has the ring of truth. Average Rating:
 Rating: - Excellent characterization of the manAmerican Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson, though one of the most famous and beloved of the founding fathers, remanis a mystery to most of us. He is largely revered for his authoring of the Declaration of Independence; but his authorship of that most famous document does little to reveal the character and mind of Thomas Jefferson. American Sphinx accomplishes this very well; revealing the seemingly contradictory nature of the man who, with every ... Read More Rating:  - Like trying to catch lightning in a bottle!The very meaning of the title of Joseph Ellis' book "American Sphinx" literally means American Enigma. Yes indeed Thomas Jefferson was a mysterious person. As pointed out by Michiko Kakutani in her New York Times book review "Jefferson became accustomed to constructing worlds of great imaginative appeal that inevitably collided with the more mundane realities." For instance Mr. Jefferson abhorred slavery, but he indeed remained a slaveholder throughout his life. His take on people ... Read More Rating: - The Elusive JeffersonThis book is a wonderful insight into the character of one our most esteemed "founding fathers." But Ellis presents him in a light that we seldom see him in. History is a strange thing, especially popular history. Unlike other areas of scholarship, every American has his/her own interpretation of who the so-called founders were. Ellis seeks to crack the halos and clip the wings to portray Jefferson for who he really was- or at least what all the available evidence best suggests. Rating:  - tabloid historyAbsolute claptrap from a morally bankrupt excuse of a human being who cannot find his niche in his pathetic underachieving life. He resorts to "tabloid" history, finding it makes up for his inability to do real research or be able to critically evaluate it. His personal ability to read into the heart and motivations of the founding fathers is ridiculous. Save your money and buy a real book by a real historian. The more read you are on one of his "targets", the more you will find his writing vacant. ... Read More Rating: - Great book!This book is quite pleasing, it is well argued and well written. If you like "juicy" biographies full of details and trivia you will be disappointed, nonetheless, it still has a wealth of biographical data that makes the book interesting and instructive. The main focus of the book is on Jefferson's achievements and legacy. The man (Jefferson) was an intellectual colossus and was never short on peculiar and original ideas; he remains an icon for all Americans that are wary of big government and all Americans ... Read More Browse for similar items by category:
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