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Thomas Jefferson: Author of America (Eminent Lives)

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I've read two volumes in the Eminent Lives series now, and have been very impressed with both. Paul Johnson's George Washington: The Founding Father (Eminent Lives) and Christopher Hitchens' essay on Thomas Jefferson are very different books. But each was in its own way remarkable. I think it's safe to say that this is a book that few readers will soon forget.

As Hitchens notes early on, Jefferson was more than just a "man of contradictions." He more or less embodied contradiction. Few writers, in my experience, are better equipped to identify contradictions, expose hypocrisies, and "call B.S." when necessary, than Christopher Hitchens. He did it with (or to) Clinton, he did it with Kissinger, and it seems only right to have spent a few hours on this Fourth of July exploring with him the evolving ideas and motivations of Mr. Jefferson himself.

Today, conservatives, libertarians, and leftists, Republicans and Democrats, anti-government "militias" and activist social-engineer types all claim Jefferson as one of their own. And each does so with some justice. Hitchens does an excellent job of walking through Jefferson's shifting opinions on questions like the proper powers of government, centralization versus "states' rights", the necessity of revolution, international relations, and much more. This is far from a comprehensive biography of Jefferson, and it certainly lacks the Olympian objectivity we get from most modern biographers. Hitchens has strong opinions, especially about religion, and he's not in the least hesitant about making those part of his discussion. Unlike another reviewer I wouldn't recommend this title for someone who has never read much about Jefferson before. But given Hitchens' keen eye and sharp pen, I think it certainly ranks among the best *interpretations* of Jefferson I've yet seen.

I bought this biography because I like Christopher Hitchens' hard-hitting journalism, e.g. his "Trials of Henry Kissinger". Hitchens tells it like he sees it, which is generally pretty left-wing, but he doesn't toe the party line, e.g. his continued support for the war in Iraq. I thought he was the perfect man to explain Thomas Jefferson, because he would have assimilated Jefferson's ideas into his own active life shaped by the school of hard knocks.

However, I am disappointed in this book, for the following reasons:

First, the book seems to have been written hastily - facts are thrown in here and there, associations to other events in Jefferson's life, without sufficient explanation, and violating the chronology of the narrative. This makes the book confusing to read, espcially if the reader is not already familiar with Jefferson's life.

Secondly, the book places a lot of emphasis on issues that are "Politically Correct" at the present time. In fact, Hitchens adopts a kind of sermonizing tone with regard to these issues, which the hastiness of his scholarship renders unconvincing. It reads like the kind of grandstanding you see in journalists giving speeches at universities.

Nonetheless, there is something to be learned in this book, and Hitchens' unique background does enable him to select some interesting moments to highlight in Jefferson's life and writings. I would recommend this book only as a companion to a fuller biography of Jefferson, such as "American Sphinx" by Joseph J. Ellis.

On April 29, 1962, at a White House dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners, John F. Kennedy said, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

As Kennedy's quip indicates, Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), the third President of the United States (1801-1809), was one of the most brilliant men to occupy the White House. A man of the Enlightenment, he was a voracious reader ("I cannot live without books," he said), well-versed in both science and the humanities.

The newest volume in HarperCollins' "Eminent Lives" Series, Christopher Hitchens' Thomas Jefferson is a compact and sophisticated look at "the author of America," the chief architect of our democratic system of government, whose eloquent words in the Declaration of Independence still ring down through the years since 1776: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

An inveterate opponent of dictators and demagogues of every stripe, Jefferson's words still inspire freedom-loving people throughout the world. "I have sworn upon the altar of God," he said, "eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."

According to Hutchinson, Jefferson threw down this gauntlet against any and all political and priestly authorities that arrogantly asserted their power to enslave, oppress, and intimidate. "The tree of liberty," Jefferson asserted, "must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." Needed words--these ... but dangerous words if their truth is twisted by ruthless insurgents.

Hitchens' work is not an exhaustive treatise; it is, rather, a compact survey, written in a sophisticated style, of the salient points of Jefferson's life and works. One finds here, of course, his relationship with Sally Hemings, a slave at Jefferson's Monticello who fathered several of his children; the Louisiana Purchase from France; and the war against the Barbary pirates (which inspired the line in the Marine Corps hymn: "from the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli").

"It would be lazy or obvious," writes Hitchens, "to say that he [Jefferson] contained contradictions or paradoxes. This is true of everybody, and of everything. It would be infinitely more surprising to strike upon a historic figure, or indeed a nation, that was not subject to this law. Jefferson did not embody contradiction. Jefferson was a contradiction, and this [is] found at every step of [this] narrative."

Was Jefferson's anticlericalism a manifestation of Deism or atheism? Concerning his question, Hitchens sends mixed signals. On one hand, he writes, "As a 'Deist,' he did not believe that God intervened in human affairs at all." (So much for doctrine of providence and the efficacy of prayer.) On the other hand, he points out, "As his days began to wane, Jefferson more than once wrote to friends that he faced the approaching end without either hope or fear. This was as much as to say, in the most unmistakable terms, that he was not a Christian."

After finishing this volume, I felt vaguely disappointed with the book's total effect, although it's difficult to explain the reason for such discontent. Nevertheless, Hitchen's mini-biography, a credible summary view of Jefferson's life, is more laudatory than critical, and receives a passing grade, if not outstanding marks.

Roy E. Perry may be reached at rperry1778@aol.com

This is a photographic negative of Jefferson pocket bios of earlier eras. There are terse acknowledgements (with detailed faults appended) of the significance of the Louisiana Purchase, the founding of the University of Virginia, and etc., but a whole chapter of outrage devoted to Sally Hemings. Hitchens makes Jefferson's failure to solve the dilemma of The Peculiar Institution the central fact of his career, if not the main theme of this book.

So, can a fair biography of Thomas Jefferson be written by someone who still reveres the genie of Bolshevik revolution, Leon Trotsky? Trotsky, who would certainly not have turned into a Jeffersonian democrat, had he ever gotten the whip hand in Russia? Well, generally speaking, yes. Jefferson gets a predictably rough ride in these pages. His famous contradictions are not excused, and unqualified admiration is given only for his many scientific interests and his anticlericalism. And one wonders if such charity as Hitchens does extend to Jefferson is a result of his galvanized respect for the American project in the wake of 9/11. As many enemies as Hitchens has made over the years, though, no one serious has ever accused him of being ignorant. Hitchens has read deeply and wide--he ticks off an impressive bibliography in his introduction--is aware of his own leanings, and his writing has the familiar learned but curdled j'accuse tone it always did. (Plus, students picking up this small book for a homework assignment will probably need to look up words like "uxoriousness", for example.)

Hitchens is of course a well-known cultured despiser of religion, and he is drawn to those passages in Jefferson's writings which reflect the same attitude. But I doubt that Jefferson, for all his disdain of "priestcraft", ever had one-half the hatred of religion that Hitchens does, and Hitchens' treatment of this aspect of Jefferson's character is the only part I see verging on projection.

Hitchens repeatedly scores Jefferson on his half-hearted approach to the slavery question. In one bit he condemns Jefferson's apprehension of the prospect of bloody revolution in Haiti, though of course Jefferson's premonition of wholesale massacre was later proven correct. Is this a consequence of once having been a devotee of political theories that result in mass liquefaction of "reactionary" populations, perhaps? (Hitchens does grant him--barely--his effort to pass legislation that would have required the end of slavery by 1800.) And Hitchens' leftist instincts are again on display in a passage about the Embargo Act. Contrast his depiction of it as an endeavor of proto-Wilsonian idealism, as opposed to Paul Johnson in _History of the American People_ painting it as an example of proto-Wilsonian muddle-headedness. Hitchens sardonically dismisses the harm that Americans took in their "pocketbooks" during the life of the Embargo Act, while praising the policy as a rare example of trying to conduct international conflicts peacefully. Someone who has not been in the habit of thinking that "the masses" belong either on the barricades or knitting potholders on some proletarian commune would not be so callous towards ordinary people's livelihoods.

Yet there are clues that Jefferson has found a place in Hitchens' heart as well as in the historian's dock. He includes a letter from Jefferson that contains this phrase:

"...cut off from my family & friends, my affairs abandoned to chaos & derangement, in short giving everything I love, in exchange for everything I hate..."

Hitchens obviously had this phrase in mind in an interview he gave about his reaction to 9/11:

"Here we are then, I was thinking, in a war to the finish between everything I love and everything I hate. Fine. We will win and they will lose."

I learned a few new things from this biography, and looked at some old things in new ways. Its admirable concision and clear points deliver the goods. It's only to be expected that, given any pundit's lack of transparency, this book will contain almost as much of the author as of the subject. Since any assertion about Jefferson brings other scholars leaping into print with their rebuttals, this should not be taken by the reader as the last word on Thomas Jefferson. There's little danger of that anyway: given the avalanche of learned tomes about our third President and his prodigiously seminal ideas, there may never be a last word.

That Thomas Jefferson's writing of the Declaration of Independence constitutes the central moment of the War of Independence cannot be disputed. However, in this concise and often interesting biography, the erudite Christopher Hitchens goes too far in attempting to portray Jefferson as "the author" of the American nation. Yet, in embodying many of the young nations deepest contradictions, Jefferson could in many ways be seen as the American ideal in microcosm. While this as well as Jefferson's almost schizophrenic complexity makes him an almost irresistible subject for any biographer.

Hitchens choice of subject, while interesting, could hardly be described as surprising. Often acerbic, but always clever, the contrary Hitchens takes great pride in infuriating his progressive cohorts be taking the opposite position of his political fellows, his early and continued support of the Iraq War being a prime example. So, in choosing Jefferson, now often reviled for his the hypocrisy of at once proclaiming universal human rights while at the same time holding men and women in bondage. To these attacks Hitchens does not excuse Jefferson but rightly points out they are obvious, boring, and wearisome as a cudgel with which to attack the third President.

Seemingly Hitchens has three agendas in this short work. First, to defend Jefferson against those on the left who attack him by reminding them of his commitment to the very core idea of liberalism, that people can through education and effort better themselves and deserve the opportunity for such betterment. Second, to liberate Jefferson from the bizarre argument now emanating from the religious right that he and his fellow founders of the United States intended to create a "Christian country," a suggestion laughable on its face to any with any knowledge of the period. Third, and less obvious, Hitchens seems to wish to use Jefferson to attack the recently ascendant Hamilton whom Hitchens sees as the patron saint of the current American political alignment which he detests.

To the first effort Hitchens does well. Regarding the second he shines, particularly with his use of some of Jefferson's more memorable quotes. The third point, however, fails. Interestingly, in many ways Jefferson seems the archetype for the current attitude of the current administration. With his ability to justify anything, from lying to George Washington as he coordinated an attack on the President's administration within the cabinet, to his praise of the French Revolution even as it descended into savagery, to the willingness of the original advocate of limited Federal power to assert robust authority when it suited him in the White House, Jefferson in ways proves the perfect amoral actor, able to justify anything that suits his current needs.

While Hitchens occasionally strays to the over zealous in his support of Jefferson, that does not detract from the books excellent qualities and entertaining style. Indeed, with Jefferson, straying too far to one extreme or another seems a pitfall in which all of his biographers eventually fall.

I have spent the weekend before Monday July 4th with Christopher Hitchens' dense (in the very good way) Thomas Jefferson and regret having the weekend end. If you suspect an underlying love for the man in Hitchens' view, he keeps it well under control, and here is nothing like the hagiography of some of the other treatments. Perhaps it takes someone with the Hitchens spark to see this iconic figure in classical marble as a sensual man with a fox-like sense of politics, as well as sometimes considerable "elasticity" when it comes to strict Constitutional questions. Hitchens did his homework for this compact book without a wasted word along the way, and I think he here controls his famous Wildean wit and plays close to the vital facts in respect of a man he considers a great formative figure in American life. Plenty of solid sure information here with a fillip of Hitchens wit just when we want it (so we don't forget the author of the book itself is a brilliant writer to reckon with). Hitchens is the right man for this, for Jefferson had the wit too, along with such scorn for English ways (he wrote to James Madison that the English ambassador's wife "established a degree of dislike among all classes which one would have thought impossible in so short a time". Good discussion of the Louisiana Purchase, Lewis's and Clark's expedition, the successes and failures Jefferson had in helping frame the Constitution, his actions against north African terrorism of a sort, the decisions he made that helped prolong slavery and solidify it, and bring about the Civil War. Hitchens offers serious criticism of Jefferson too, and I myself could spot little bias in his book. Fascinating material on the relationship with his slave mistress Sally Hemings, who, Hitchens posits, in the face of other far more harsh judgments and his own recogniztion of the master-slave dynamics, might have found her master an attractive, fascinating, sensual, perhaps even loving man. A first rate introduction and more than that for those of us who are not historians, and surely of interest to the historians themselves.

Mr. Hitchens has another gem in this excellent book. As a reader of many books on Thomas Jefferson, I found this book to have tid bits I never knew. Like on page 22 where on reads that it was because Mr. Jefferson was famed as a drafter of resolutions, writer of great explicatory force, and thoughtful compromiser, that he was called upon to draw up the Declaration of Independence. Page 23 'There is no other example in history, apart from the composition of the King James version of the Bible, in which great words and concepts have been fused into poetic prose by the banal processes of a committee.'

Page 26 'Thomas Jefferson, indeed, is one of the small handful of people to have his very name associated with a form of democracy.' Page 43 'Jefferson was not a man of the Enlightenment only in the ordinary sense that he believed in reason or perhaps rationality. He was very specifically one of those who believed that human redemption lay in education, discovery, innovation and experiment.'

Page 44 Jefferson, too, considered himself a scientist. He studied botany, fossils, crop cycles, and animals. He made copious notes on what he saw. He designed a new kind of plow, which would cut a deeper furrow in the soil exhausted by the false economy of tobacco farming. He was fascinated by the invention of air balloons, which he instantly saw might provide a new form of transport as well as a new form of warfare. He enjoyed surveying and prospecting and when whaling became an important matter in the negotiation of a commercial treaty, wrote a treatise on the subject himself.'

Have read some on Sally Heming, but the author writes some interesting aspects not focused on by other authors. 'Sally Hemings was the grandaughter of one while slaveholder and the daughter of another, John Wayles. Mr Wayles was also the father of Thomas Jeffersons wife, Martha, so that the wife and the later Mistress were in fact half sisters. To say that there was any taboo on 'inter-racial' sex or 'miscegenation' at Monticello would therefore be to exaggerate considerably. And. although she was certainly a slave by virtue of being Jeffersons legal property, Sally as I shall now call her had not been subjected to the indignities and humiliations of fieldwork and the lash. ..... She had been in the room when Martha Jefferson died and had heard Jefferson promise his dying wife never to marry again.' I would simply note that visually Ms. Heming was probably much lighter skinned than someone like Hallie Berry whose father was black. Thus Ms. Heming would have had the small amount of black blood that would legally have made her black, but would visually have made her white.

Page 171 Declining Years, one reads 'The establishment of the University of Virginia was one of only three of his achievements that Jefferson felt worthy of commemoration on his headstone. But its page 180 onward that I don't think most lovers of Jefferson have heard about. Namely the fact that Jefferson believed that Indians (Native Americans) should be protected from Christian missionaries. Or on page 182 where one learns that in 1904 it became the custom of the United States Senate to present new members with a copy of what is known as the Jefferson Bible, on the day of their swearing in. This version of the Bible written by Jefferson, is small, because it is basically just the writings of what Jesus was supposed to have said, and not what Paul and others said and wrote, which many don't think had anything to do with Jesus at all.

On page we read 'In May 1824 an itinerant scholar and book peddler names Samuel Whitcomb paid a call at Monticello and found Jefferson himself answering the door'. They then had an intense visit and 'When the inescapable matter of religion was raised, Jefferson became irascible: He remarked in reply to me that Paul was the first who had perverted the Doctrines of Christ. I made some remarks and concluded by saying that the Clergy in our County were investigating these subjects with considerable independence. He dissented and expressed himself warmly in a phrase which I suppose was not English but some other language 'The Clergy were all ....' It was evident to me that he held the Clergy in general in perfect contempt, and that he thought little of Theological investigation...'

Again I simply say that this book is a real gem and one I am proud to have in our extensive home library.

The trend of what I call "mini-biographies" seems to have taken off with the popularity of the Penguin Lives series (which, ironically, does not yet offer a volume on Jefferson). For one example, we now also have the ongoing American Presidents series. Now including the appearance of the Eminent Lives series, all of these brief biographies,like any of the larger works, are written through the lens of the authors' own views or agendas. (How can it be otherwise?) For example, Joye Appleby (American Presidents series) approaches Jefferson through the current (and in my view,for history and biography,harmful)ideology of political correctness. Therefore, mostly the flaws of Jefferson stand out.
Christopher Hitchens, on the other hand, takes a more balanced approach,pointing out where he believes Jefferson shines, and where he disappoints. But he is never condemned, for Hitchens, to his credit, attempts to place Jefferson within the times in which he lived. Perhaps most telling in how Hitchens views Jefferson are the last two sentences in Chapter Eight: "Unresolved were the questions on involutary servitude, of the new nations exact borders, and of the future on the non-European tribes. But these matters were henceforth to be approached within the context of an increasingly assertive American modernity." And there you have it; Hitchens recognizes Jefferson's flaws, but he never expects him and the generation he represents to have corrected all the problems of the new nation. While surely not placing him on a pedestal, Hitchins recognizes that Jefferson and his generation had already achieved a great deal.
This said, if the reader is willing to read ten more pages of text, the most even and scholarly short biography of Jefferson is that by R.B. Bernstein (Oxford University Press, 20003). I do not know of a more well-written general biography (and I have read most all of them) of Jefferson, large or small, and Berstein trusts thoughtful readers to form their own views. That,in part, is what biography and history are all about.

This book, while biographical in nature, represents a more free-form approach by British intellectual and polemicist, Christopher Hitchens, in examining the lengthy public service career and profound life of Thomas Jefferson. Hitchens essentially acknowledges the indebtedness that America has for both Jefferson's ideas, in particular his democratic inclinations, despite his aristocratic background, seen in both his words in the Declaration of Independence and his vigorous opposition to the neo-aristocratic policies of the Federalist in the 1790s, and his policy initiatives during his presidency, such as finally suppressing the pirates of North Africa, doubling the land size of the US through the Louisiana Purchase, and enthusiastically backing the exploration of this newly purchased land by Lewis and Clark, reflective of his lifelong interest in botany, and the like.

Jefferson's contradictions and difficulties seem to be a main focus for the author, not so much for purposes of condemnation, but more for ensuring a balanced approach. Clearly, Jefferson's ambiguities concerning the actual equality of all men resonant most strongly in the modern era. As a Southern planter and beneficiary of its non-free labor system, he could not satisfactorily reconcile his principles with his practices in that regard. Jefferson's lengthy association with his house servant Sally Hennings, including the fathering of several children, is never in doubt. Interestingly, the author shows that Jefferson, though not an aggressive individual, was fond of attractive women. A more serious situation for Jefferson in his lifetime was his hasty retreat from British troops during his last days as governor of Virginia in 1780, providing ammunition for his detractors in regard to his courage, a not insignificant matter for gentlemen in colonial society.

Jefferson was, hands-down, America's foremost intellectual of his time. His vast accumulation of the latest books from throughout Europe was a lifelong obsession. In the aftermath of the burning of the Library of Congress during the War of 1812, Jefferson sold his personal collection of 6500 volumes to the Library, a substantial start for any great library. The downside to Jefferson's intellectualism, was his tendency to romanticize revolutionary thought and actions. He turned a blind eye to the excesses of the French revolution far beyond any objective assessment. He was given to intemperate views, though not necessarily publicly stated, such as regarding the periodic spilling of blood as a means of renewing revolutionary ideals or holding that one generation owed little to their successors and that government and most institutions should begin anew. The author, given his well-known religious disinclination, is more than mildly appreciate of Jefferson's fairly successful efforts, mostly in Virginia, to orchestrate legislation to curb the dominance of organized churches in social and political affairs. Jefferson's specific religious ideas remain somewhat vague, yet his lifelong support of Thomas Paine, an infamous infidel and Revolutionary era hero, may be telling.

The book is mildly informative concerning the major activities and impact of Jefferson. Jefferson remains a remarkable man in Hitchens' telling, though not without flaws. However, the book is somewhat selective in what is covered. Other principals of the era make mostly cameo appearances. The author brings a few scattered insights that perhaps lie outside a conventional biographical focus, not to mention his occasional literary phrasing, but given the author's reputation for polemics, it might have been expected that sharper critiques would have been offered on Jefferson's actions and significance. The complete absence of notes or an index in the book is indicative of the author's indifference towards conventional biography or history. A few books are mentioned in an acknowledgements section. It has to be said that the book is not an arresting effort, falling short of expectations.

The idea behind the series "Eminent Lives" is a good one: have various well-known authors write brief biographies of famous people. One of the problems with this idea is that, sometimes brevity is not a good idea when it comes to a life that was full of action and activity. That is especially true of the life of Thomas Jefferson, a man who was a true "renaissance man" in all the best aspects of the word. No brief biography can do his life justice, but the author really does his best to give us the sense of the man. This is a "warts and all" biography, a far cry from the hagiographies often penned about Jefferson. We see the man as he may have truly been, a patriot, but a politician and the author of the Declaration of Independence who believed in slavery, and always feared a slave revolt, a Deist (or perhaps agnostic) who was not above using religious phrases when it suited him. I found the work as well-balanced as possible; given the subject I just wish it could have been longer.