Customer Reviews

Thomas Jefferson: The American Presidents Series: The 3rd President, 1801-1809 (American Presidents (Times))

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Few American presidents have experienced such a fluctuating reputation as president as has Thomas Jefferson. To a large extent this is also because of his pivotal role in the creation of the American republic. His contributions are by any standard vast: principal author of The Declaration of Independence, governor of Virginia during the Revolutionary War, ambassador to France following the War, first Secretary of State, second Vice President, third President, creator of the American party system (as well as of the old Republican party, that ironically evolved into the Democratic party under the leadership of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren), and author of a host of documents that have become part of the heart of American political literature. He is also viewed as the principal founder of liberalism in the United States, and is usually contrasted with John Adams, who is perceived as the founder of conservativism (though I personally find that Adams has virtually nothing in common with contemporary conservativism, which has less and less to do with Burkean ideals and concerns). This biography of Jefferson is by Joyce Appleby, one of the most renowned and respected of contemporary historians of the American Revolution and the early republic. In recent years many historians have taken aim at Jefferson to provide unflattering portraits, based either on the mercurial or inconsistent nature of his personality, the hypocrisy of his years as Adams's vice president, or his complex relations to slavery in general and Sally Hemmings in particular. Appleby does not want to ignore the very troubling aspects of Jefferson's career, especially on slavery--and who would want to, since to do so would be to tacitly endorse the "particular institution"--but she definitely wants to remind her readers both of why Jefferson is one of our greatest presidents and of his central role in fashioning some of the finest aspects of American society and political life.

It cannot be emphasized strongly enough that Appleby has written a biography that is intended to serve as a corrective to the work of historians like Joseph J. Ellis, who in books like AMERICAN SPHINX, FOUNDING BROTHERS, and PASSIONATE SAGE has been intensely critical of Jefferson on a host of grounds (indeed, Ellis portrays him as a bit of a hypocritical nutcase). Also, with a number of books that have rehabilitated John Adams, it has been inevitable that he be played off Jefferson in a way that is a bit more flattering to Adams than perhaps ought to be the case. The negative reviews of this book are, as a result, utterly incomprehensible. What to make of them? I'm not sure if the one-star reviewers haven't read this biography, or if they haven't read anything else about Jefferson. Several criticize this book for being "PC," whatever that means. Appleby points out that Jefferson remained a slaveholder despite thinking it was evil, that he consistently denigrated women in his writings, and that he very possibly had a complex relationship with Sally Hemmings. Could any good biographer ignore these issues? Would any civilized individual claim that Jefferson's positions can be defended? Of course not. More to the point, has any competent biographer ignored these issues? Did Ellis? Did Dumas Malone? These same reviewers assert that Appleby "bashes" Jefferson. Clearly, they are utterly ignorant of the greater literature on Jefferson and the Revolution. This is unquestionably a very positive portrait of Jefferson. She praises him despite his questionable views on slavery. In fact, my major complaint with the book is that she doesn't deal sufficiently with a host of actions in his life that are extremely dubious morally. For instance, he was not only the most disloyal vice president in American history, he persistently aided those journalists who savagely attacked Adams, and even assisted in one book that made scurrilous attacks on Adams's morals, all while denying to Adams's face that he was doing any of these things. As readers of other biographies of Jefferson are aware, he had a remarkable capacity for self-justifying some very dubious actions. He was a master of "the ends justifies the means" thinking. Appleby largely skirts over this, perhaps because of her limited amount of space, perhaps because she wants to emphasize his positive accomplishments instead.

Primarily, Appleby wants to explain how the American political system is essentially Jeffersonian through its very core. His insistence on a government by the people and for the people (Lincoln was in many ways the foremost Jeffersonian to follow in his footsteps)--as opposed to a patriarchal and powerful central government with an aristocracy making decisions for the many--won the war for the political heart of America. In other words, he was the author for the populism that has always since remained the great ideal of American politics, even if it has sometimes been subverted. His notions of equality of opportunity, of trusting the masses rather than the few, of stressing the general will over the particular will have become lock, stock, and barrel of American political life. She wants to show that America is essentially Jefferson in its very soul. Because most of her work has been done on the intellectual history of the Revolution, she portrays this as a struggle of ideas. All in all, I think she does a masterful job of showing why Jefferson is one of our most crucial presidents.

The book is not without flaws, though its flaws are never noted in the one and two star reviews found below, which all bizarrely and surreally criticize the book because it supposedly makes Jefferson look bad. In fact, in her attempt to make Jefferson good, she sometimes makes the Federalists look worse than they ought. For instance, she never sharply distinguishes between Adams and the Federalists, let alone Adams and Hamilton, Adam hating and detesting Hamilton far more than Jefferson ever did. She often writes as if Adams and Hamilton were of one mind. Furthermore, she repeats some caricatures of the past, such as the one that Adams engaged in a host of "midnight" judicial appointments, though biographers such as Paige Smith, McCullough, and Ellis have shown that in fact these appointments had been made over the course of weeks and months, and not on a single eve. She is too good of an historian to have made such a simple mistake. At the very least she should have indicated why the caricature is correct and Adams's biographers wrong. I find the positions of many of the Federalists to be complex to sum up as neatly as she has done here.

I would heartily recommend that anyone reading this book read it in conjunction with John Patrick Diggins biography of Adams from the same series. They say that history is written by the winners, but this is a case where the outcome is still in question. Adams and Jefferson represent two great, ongoing traditions in American life. Diggins sees more virtue in Adams and more vice in Jefferson than is plausible, and much the same can be said of Appleby's opposite portrait. But anyone wanting to read this book can rest assured that this is a first rate brief biography, one that wants to praise Jefferson, not merely bash him.

To be fair, this third installment of The American Presidents Series from Joyce Appleby does indeed provide some interesting information about both the personal life and administration of our nation's third President, Thomas Jefferson.

However, in terms of understanding the position of Jefferson in the context of the birth of our young nation, the "John Adams" installment of "American Presidents" is actually just as effective (if not more so) in defining the most important aspects of Jefferson's thoughts, philosophies, and actions towards politics. The disputes between Adams (pro-government) and Jefferson (almost no-government intrusion) laid the backbone for party politics in the United States, and while reading this book I never really felt as if Appleby gave Jefferson a fair shake in laying out "his side of the story".

Thus, I still recommend reading this book for the useful information it expouses about other aspects of Jeffersonian America, but if (like I was) you are looking for a continuation of the fascinating Adams/Jefferson philosophical battle, you may be disappointed.

In her study for the American Presidents series, historian Joyce Appleby observes (p.132) that "America's most pressing history assignment is coming to terms with Thomas Jefferson." Indeed the variety of reviews on this site, and their varying assessments of Jefferson, themselves bear witness to the difficulties of understanding our third president. Appelby has written a nuanced, brief study of Jefferson's presidency with all its complexities and contradictions. She is more sympathetic to Jefferson than are many other scholars. Yet, she also lets the reader see Jefferson's flaws and inconsistencies. Her book gives the reader new to Jefferson a good starting point for understanding not only Jefferson's presidency but also some lasting issues in American political thought.

Jefferson wished to be remembered as the author of the Declaration of Independence and of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom and as the Father of the University of Virginia. Appleby of necessity treads lightly on these and many other significant accomplishments to focus on Jefferson's fundamental ideas and on his presidency.

For Appleby, Jefferson was the founder of participatory democracy. While the other Founders, including Washington, Adams, and Hamilton tended towards an elitist concept of government in which the educated and well-born exercised disinterested political control, Jefferson sought a much broader base for political power and activity. Jefferson wanted to break down distinctions based on wealth or background for political participation. In practice, as Appelby points out, Jefferson expanded the scope of political participation to include all white males. The converse is that he continued to exclude African Americans, Native Americans, and women. But he still was far more inclusive than his contemporaries. And Jefferson laid the foundation, in his "self-evident" truth that "All men are created equal" for his successors over many years to see his own shortcomings and to pass beyond them.

On a broader level, Appleby insightfully describes Jefferson as the founder of one of the two main strains of American political thought.Jefferson was an enlightenment thinker who believed that people were essentially good and that they possessed the ability to understand and solve the issues confronting them. This is a key belief of most forms of political liberalism. Jefferson's opponents, exemplified by the Federalists and particularly by John Adams, evidenced a distrust of the human heart and an awareness of the mind's capacity for deception. They were inclined to put checks on the multitudes. Adams, as Jefferson's rival, has become the founding figure of the difficult and elusive part of American thought called conservatism. Jefferson was in his opposition to Washington and Adams and, in spite of himself, the founder of two-party politics in the United States.

Appelby begins her account of Jefferson's presidency with the election of 1800, one of the closest and least understood in our history. Jefferson assumed the presidency with the goal of limiting government and increasing the autonomy of the individual. Appleby describes Jefferson's astounding Louisiana Purchase, which greatly increased presidential power, as intended to promote Jeffersonian goals by opening up land to settlement by small, independent yeoman farmers.Appleby discusses well the important constitutional changes that were wrought during Jefferson's time, some by Jefferson himself -- as in the Louisiana Purchase -- and some by his opponent, Chief Justice John Marshall.

Jefferson's second term was plagued by his former Vice-president, Aaron Burr, who was tried for treason for attempting to lead a secession movement in the West. The nature of Burr's activities have always been obscure, but Jefferson actively sought his conviction. Burr was acquitted after a trial in which Chief Justice Marshall presided.

The closing years of Jefferson's presidency saw a great increase in tension between the United States and both Great Britain and France as the two European powers refused to respect American neutrality on the high seas. Late in his administration, Jefferson secured the enactment of an Embargo which resulted in great domestic divisiveness and near economic ruin. The Embargo would soon lead under President Madison to the War of 1812.

Appleby gives a brief account of Jefferson's life following his presidency, including the important correspondence he held with his former rival and friend, John Adams. Jefferson and Adams effected a reconciliation in the correspondence of their old age even though their philosophical differences remained. The reconciliation of these two Founders suggests that both Adams's conservatism and Jefferson's liberalism have much to contribute, in their insights and tensions, to a vibrant, thriving United States. Appleby's own sympathies in her fine thougtful study are clearly with Jefferson and with the liberal tradition.

Robin Friedman

I'm shocked at the negative reviews this book has received. I found it to be a brilliant introduction to an incredibly complex thinker and person. Far from bashing Jefferson for his views on blacks and women, Appleby apologizes for him, and basically agrees with her negative reviewers here that we should not judge an eighteenth century figure by twentieth century standards.

Appleby has a remarkable feel for the politics of the early Republic, and does a brilliant job of recreating for a modern reader exactly what the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans were fighting over. She makes a strong case that Jefferson stood for democracy, against elitist opponents who sought to exclude common people from voting.

The core of her argument is that Jeffersonian republicanism is at the heart of our modern conception of democracy, and that both contemporary political parties -- the Democratic and the Republican -- draw equally on his legacy. An important argument to remember in these partisan times, and it gives us hope that we can overcome our current profound divisions.

After reading Charles Calhoun's "Benjamin Harrison" I decided to purchase other volumes in this series. I was very disappointed in this volume.

First, there was very little insight on his life prior to becoming president and did not examine the details of his presidency. She seems to want us to believe that everything that Jefferson done was to save the US from the "tyranny" of the Federalist Party. Everything that Washington and Adams did as president was to produce a monarchy and create an elitist class in America. In contrast, everything that Jefferson had done was to reverse the policies of these two "bad" presidents. As Appleby discussed the actions of Jefferson this pattern was followed, first she described how it was done before by his predecessors and how their actions was an attempt to create an elitist society, then what Jefferson did to reverse these trends and how it showed that he was more in touch with the common man, and then she would examine how members of the Federalist Party would balk at his actions. A typical example of this would be how he handled the president's annual address to congress (now known as the "State of the Union). Washington and Adams delivered this in person as the monarchs of Europe had done. When Jefferson became president he insisted on delivering the finished speech to congress which brought the ire or the Federalist Party. There is no mention that since Woodrow Wilson, besides a few exceptions, every president has delivered that State of the Union in person.

Secondly, the organization of the book seemed very haphazard. In the chapter on the 1804 reelection she jumped around between his views on slavery and the contradiction of his being a slave owner, attacks on the Federalist Party, Aaron Burr, and a brief mentioning of the actual election. These events would have been better viewed if they had presented in separate chapters instead of a being jumbled together.

Thirdly, she showed the main characters in terms of black and white. Jefferson was the savior of the union, Washington wanted to become a king, Adams was a cranky old man who wanted the leaders of the country to be separated from the common "rabble", Hamilton was a manipulator who was not afraid to be a bully to get his way, and Burr was a traitor to his party, his president, and his country. Everyman has his flaws and no one is perfect, but Appleby downplays the contributions of other men and only shows their flaws to build on to Jefferson's contributions to the country. She even went as far to hint that the deaths of Washington and Hamilton were helpful to Jefferson's presidency.

There are many other flaws with this book that have already been examined in other customer's reviews. For all of its failings I would not recommend this book.

I have read and reviewed most of the volumes in The American Presidents Series for which the late Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. served as general editor at the time when Joyce Appleby's brief biography of Jefferson was first published (2003). In the "Editor's Note," Schlesinger explains that the aim of the series is "to present the grand panorama of our chief executives in volumes compact enough for the busy reader, lucid enough for the student, authoritative enough for the scholar. Each volume offers a distillation of character and career." As is also true of the other volumes, this brief biography one examines the essential events and meaning of Jefferson's life without oversimplification or generalization.

The challenges that Appleby faced and somehow overcame were complicated by the fact that, in her words, Jefferson was "the most controversial of presidents...because the contradictions in his ideals still affect Americans profoundly. They touch on natural rights, race, and the proper balance between liberty and equality in democratic rule. Jefferson sought change, innovation, novelty, but he was decidedly not a deracinated intellectual, writing incendiary tracts in a garret like Thomas Paine. Rather, he was an insider, repeatedly elected to high office, by his peers the slave-owning planters of Tidewater Virginia. It's safe to say that rarely if ever has a man with such radical bent won so many elections from such an electorate. Solving this puzzle strains our imagination." With meticulous care but at a brisk pace, Appleby examines the key relationships in Jefferson's life, notably with adversaries such as John Adams, Alexander Hamilton, James Callender, and (on occasion) John Marshall and George Washington with whom he served for two terms as his nation's first vice president. She also devotes what seems to me to be an appropriate portion of her attention (Pages 73, 74-76, and 140) to Jefferson' relationship with Sally Hemmings.

Frankly, I have almost no interest in this subject but was eager to share Appleby's thoughts about Jefferson's ambivalence about slavery. Here is a composite of brief excerpts from her narrative: "There is no doubt that Jefferson considered Negroes inferior to whites. He said so in his one book, Notes on the State of Virginia, but he also blamed slavery for the degradation of the enslaved and explicitly affirmed that human liberty was based on natural rights, not on intelligence...In the abstract, slavery scratched at his conscience, but in practice, Jefferson accepted the institution pretty much as he found it, going along with the norms of his fellow planters. He treated his slaves as possessions, offering their labor to his sons-in-law as gestures of generosity. He personally got rid of slaves whom he considered insubordinate, and he sold slaves when he was short of money." It was not until 37 years after Jefferson's death that President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and not until 1954 that the U.S. Supreme Court declared segregation unconstitutional. However contemporary Jefferson's ambivalence about slavery may have been at that time, at least among his peers, it is impossible to ignore hypocrisy; that is, the discrepancy between the values that his prose affirms and the values of his behavior.

I do agree, however, with Joyce Appleby's concluding observation that "it would be a grave error of historical judgment to underestimate the significance of Jefferson's successful assault on the venerable dogma of natural inequality that was based on the belief that most men and women were created to be the hewers of wood and drawers of water for the `favored few.'" I congratulate her on consolidating so much historical material within a lively narrative of only 157 pages, and doing so without oversimplification or generalization. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out the sources she provides in her "Selected Bibliography."

In his biography of Thomas Jefferson, titled "American Sphinx," Joseph Ellis tellingly says at one point (Page xvii): "As I have found him, there really is a core of convictions and apprehensions at his center. Although he was endlessly elusive and extraordinarily adroit at covering his tracks, there were bedrock Jeffersonian values that determined the shape of the political vision he projected so successfully onto his world. . . ."

Joyce Appleby, author of this brief volume in The American Presidents series, attempts to capture that elusiveness. As noted many times, this series provides brief, readable, and often (but not always) insightful analyses--but at the cost of depth. For many, that tradeoff is well worth it, and I would rather someone read a brief biography and think a bit about the subject rather than not read anything at all about the subjects. Appleby begins by noting that Jefferson (Page 1) ". . .instilled the nation with his liberal convictions," the two most important, in the author's eyes, being participatory politics and limited government. These were clearly central aspects of Jefferson's political philosophy. However, his enmity toward a hierarchical, ordered society dominated by an elite is undermined by his ambivalent views on, for example, slavery. Jefferson, as a person, is someone who often manifest conflicting elements to his thinking.

This book, to its credit, gives credit to Jefferson for his accomplishments, whether as ambassador to France, his role in authoring the Declaration of Independence, his advocacy for the political equality of white males--including those who were not persons of means. The work also juxtaposes those with his ambivalence about slavery (at one point, he fears that the country will have to suffer greatly for the "peculiar institution" and, at another point, he cannot conceive blacks and whites living together in amity and equality) and about gender (he could not conceive women as political equals, although he could treat individual women, such as daughters and Abigail Adams, with considerable respect). The book also straightforwardly addresses the issue of his relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. It also discusses his somewhat problematic behavior while serving in Washington's Cabinet, as he fought with Alexander Hamilton and authorized nasty newspaper attacks on the Administration.

As President, he presided over some great moments--the Louisiana Purchase, the taking seriously of political freedoms, the advocacy of political rights for the less well born, the opening of the West, the exploration of Lewis and Clark, the successful prosecution of the war against the Barbary pirates. On the other side, his cold approach toward native Americans, his failed economic policies directed against the French and British as the United States became a pawn in their struggle for supremacy, his inability to address the slavery issue (although he pushed legislation to end the slave trade at the earliest time possible under the Constitution--introducing yet again his ambivalences).

So, this is a useful short biography laying out this elusive character. Appleby meets, I think, the challenge of presenting this complex person in a slender volume. Worth looking at. . . .

Much like the subject of this book, this text left me puzzled. At times I thought the author too dismissive of important issues about Jefferson. At other times the author gave excellent perspectives of this founding father.

I do not rate this book too high, but I do not downgrade this book as have several other reviewers, who seem to espouse an anti-intellectual view of history. I disagree with the concept that one should not criticize historical figures with current day knowledge. I notice that these same folks are not restrained from praising historical figures using twenty-first century perspectives. But, mostly these people only use their "don't criticize" argument to protect those with whom they agree, and conversely bash other historical figures with whom they dislike (e.g., try reading some of those anti-Lincoln books by southern apologists). An if someone truly doesn't believe in critical evaluations of the founding fathers, then let them stick to reading children's nursery rhymes.

I want to read more books about Jefferson, but from what I have read he is a very contradictory fellow. For example, has anyone noticed how often he was wrong in his policies and programs? He fought Hamilton on the economic system best for this nation (Hamilton's system won), he supported ties with the French over the British. How did that result? (Freedom fries anyone?). He "argued" for full democracy (only for white males), yet current republicans ridicule true democracy as anarchy. He denigrated centralized federal government, yet now the current administration is telling local schools how and what to teach our children. He opposed the Alien-Sedition Act, but only by the federal government, he thought states were fine to prosecute the same type of dissent. He preferred tobacco farming over wheat farming since it takes more effort to grow the former, yet the only accounts of Jefferson the farmer was how he constantly brought himself on the edge of financial ruin, while keeping his nails clean of soil.

He wanted open debate, but often stood in the shadows using others as his mouthpiece to snipe at his foes such as Adams. He moved quickly for the U.S. to attack the Barbary Coast, but took to his horse when the British approached the Virginia capital when he was governor (but cowardice is still not keeping a person from being elected president). We are told that he was an inspired inventor, but can anyone name a single Jefferson creation that had any public use at any time in history?

Please do not misunderstand. Jefferson does deserve a place of high honor among this country's founding fathers. His Monticello home was superbly designed especially how he formed the home with the landscape. I just have not seen, and this book did not provide, the reason to place him above people like Washington, and Franklin, etc. His words are, or should be, engrained in the American conscious, but his words were not original, he depended on various philosophers in Europe and ancient Rome.

Honestly, I believe that the reason Jefferson garners more historical interest than so many other figures of 1776 is because he was full of so many contradictions. He can be made into whatever you want since he seemed to have said, or acted in so many ways that it is easy for a person to believe that Jefferson would have been on his (but not on her) side.

Well written but gets boring reading the same old rehash warmed over with a different person's opinions. Nothing new here, I'm afraid, just a repeat.

I disagree that Appleby wrote a PC view of Jefferson - I loved Appleby's style and came away from the book with a balanced and informed view of the topic. Jefferson has blemishes - he practiced the sort of politics that he said he dispised. He had a relationship with a slave that produced children. He personally hurt the man who recommended that he write the Declaration of independence. He also helped establish the idea of the loyal opposition, the peaceful transition of power, of keeping most of what Washington and Adams had put into place so that we would have traditions for our government. he represented an idealism - all of this came across in Appleby's book.