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American Sphinx

The Character of Thomas Jefferson

The Character of Thomas Jefferson

By Joseph J. Ellis

By Joseph J. Ellis

By Joseph J. Ellis

By Joseph J. Ellis

By Joseph J. Ellis
Read by Susan O’Malley

By Joseph J. Ellis
Read by Susan O’Malley

Best Seller
Paperback $22.00

Apr 07, 1998 | ISBN 9780679764410

Ebook $12.99

Nov 19, 1998 | ISBN 9780375727467

Audiobook Download $25.00

Feb 23, 2021 | 900 Minutes

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    American Sphinx by Joseph J. Ellis
    Paperback $22.00
    Apr 07, 1998 | ISBN 9780679764410

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      Apr 07, 1998 | ISBN 9780679764410

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    About American Sphinx

    Following Thomas Jefferson from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to his retirement in Monticello, Joseph J. Ellis unravels the contradictions of the Jeffersonian character.  He gives us the slaveholding libertarian who was capable of decrying mescegenation while maintaing an intimate relationship with his slave, Sally Hemmings; the enemy of government power who exercisdd it audaciously as president; the visionarty who remained curiously blind to the inconsistencies in his nature.  American Sphinx is a marvel of scholarship, a delight to read, and an essential gloss on the Jeffersonian legacy.

    About American Sphinx

    Following Thomas Jefferson from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to his retirement in Monticello, Joseph J. Ellis unravels the contradictions of the Jeffersonian character.  He gives us the slaveholding libertarian who was capable of decrying mescegenation while maintaing an intimate relationship with his slave, Sally Hemmings; the enemy of government power who exercisdd it audaciously as president; the visionarty who remained curiously blind to the inconsistencies in his nature.  American Sphinx is a marvel of scholarship, a delight to read, and an essential gloss on the Jeffersonian legacy.

    About American 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.

    Listen to a sample from American Sphinx

    Also by Joseph J. Ellis

    American Dialogue
    The Quartet
    Writing the Declaration of Independence
    Revolutionary Summer
    First Family
    See all books by Joseph J. Ellis

    Also by Joseph J. Ellis

    American Dialogue
    The Quartet
    Writing the Declaration of Independence
    Revolutionary Summer
    First Family
    See all books by Joseph J. Ellis

    Also by Joseph J. Ellis

    American Dialogue
    The Quartet
    Writing the Declaration of Independence
    Revolutionary Summer
    First Family
    See all books by Joseph J. Ellis

    About Joseph J. Ellis

    JOSEPH J. ELLIS is the author of many works of American history including Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won the National Book Award. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with… More about Joseph J. Ellis

    About Joseph J. Ellis

    JOSEPH J. ELLIS is the author of many works of American history including Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won the National Book Award. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with… More about Joseph J. Ellis

    About Joseph J. Ellis

    JOSEPH J. ELLIS is the author of many works of American history including Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, and American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, which won the National Book Award. He lives in Amherst, Massachusetts with… More about Joseph J. Ellis

    Product Details

    Category: Political Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Colonial/Revolutionary War History | Domestic Politics

    Paperback | $22.00
    Published by Vintage
    Apr 07, 1998 | 464 Pages | 5-3/16 x 8 | ISBN 9780679764410

    Category: Political Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Colonial/Revolutionary War History | Domestic Politics

    Ebook | $12.99
    Published by Vintage
    Nov 19, 1998 | 464 Pages | ISBN 9780375727467

    Category: Political Figure Biographies & Memoirs | Colonial/Revolutionary War History | Domestic Politics | Audiobooks

    Audiobook Download | $25.00
    Published by Random House Audio
    Feb 23, 2021 | 900 Minutes | ISBN 9780593414613

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    Praise

    “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

    Awards

    Ambassador Book Award WINNER 1998

    National Book Awards WINNER 1997

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