Joseph J. Ellis

Offers a reassessment of the life, image, and career of Thomas Jefferson, examining his complex personality, controversies about the man and his beliefs, and his accomplishments

The Character of Thomas Jefferson

American Sphinx

Jeni Enjaian

A review from my old blog...

This book focused on the character, the words of Thomas Jefferson. I absolutely love history and found this book right up my alley. Sometimes historiographers fill their books with boring facts told in boring ways but Ellis is not like that.

My last semester of college I took a class on the Early National Era of America and obviously Jefferson played a big role in that class. I also wrote my paper on his writings and views about education so I had to read a lot about Jefferson and familiarize myself with the scholarly authors so it was quite a "thrill" to be reading along and come across a familiar name.

The only downside I could find about Ellis' style really wasn't all that big of a deal. He structured the chapters to deal with different time periods of Jefferson's life and usually began with a summary that focused on the end of the time period and then back tracked. I got a little confused but it was easily sorted out.

I loved the book and would recommend it to anyone who loves history.

American Sphinx The Character of Thomas Jefferson

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