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18 reviews for:
"most Blessed of the Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination
Annette Gordon-Reed, Peter S. Onuf
3.71 AVERAGE
18 reviews for:
"most Blessed of the Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination
Annette Gordon-Reed, Peter S. Onuf
3.71 AVERAGE
Some interesting discussions, but probably better for someone with a better grasp of Jefferson's history than I.
Interesting look at Jefferson’s contradictions it not nearly as interesting or compelling and the The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family was a much more interesting read.
Read a pre-release copy shared by Sara. Librarians get to go to the coolest conferences.
Bailing on this one part way through. It's not bad, I'm just finding it's not holding my interest in the same way as other Jefferson books have.
A 3.5, but I rounded up, because I think it's an important book.
This isn't a biography of Thomas Jefferson. Instead, Gordon-Reed and Onuf dive deep into how Jefferson thought--about himself, about slavery, about the United States, about politics, about religion and women and visitors and music. The authors do a good job of placing Jefferson firmly in his time period; they don't apologize for his beliefs and attitudes, but they contextualize them. As expected, Sally Hemings and her family, as well as other enslaved people at Monticello, are mentioned frequently throughout the book; the authors don't forget what Jefferson did.
Jefferson remains one of the more elusive historical figures in American history; he looms large, but is so full of contradictions. Gordon-Reed and Onuf do a good job of explaining him; after reading this, I felt I knew a lot more about Jefferson as a person. I also felt I learned about changing attitudes toward slavery as well as Jefferson's thoughts on the best forms of government.
I did knock some points off because the language is pretty academic. I had a harder time with it in the beginning than later in the book; I'm not sure if that's because I just got used to it, whether the writing changed a bit, or maybe just some subjects further into the book were less formal (the chapter on music was fascinating!). It was also somewhat repetitive, which tends to happen when authors cover things by topics, rather than chronologically.
Still, would highly recommend for anyone interested in Jefferson and this period of history.
This isn't a biography of Thomas Jefferson. Instead, Gordon-Reed and Onuf dive deep into how Jefferson thought--about himself, about slavery, about the United States, about politics, about religion and women and visitors and music. The authors do a good job of placing Jefferson firmly in his time period; they don't apologize for his beliefs and attitudes, but they contextualize them. As expected, Sally Hemings and her family, as well as other enslaved people at Monticello, are mentioned frequently throughout the book; the authors don't forget what Jefferson did.
Jefferson remains one of the more elusive historical figures in American history; he looms large, but is so full of contradictions. Gordon-Reed and Onuf do a good job of explaining him; after reading this, I felt I knew a lot more about Jefferson as a person. I also felt I learned about changing attitudes toward slavery as well as Jefferson's thoughts on the best forms of government.
I did knock some points off because the language is pretty academic. I had a harder time with it in the beginning than later in the book; I'm not sure if that's because I just got used to it, whether the writing changed a bit, or maybe just some subjects further into the book were less formal (the chapter on music was fascinating!). It was also somewhat repetitive, which tends to happen when authors cover things by topics, rather than chronologically.
Still, would highly recommend for anyone interested in Jefferson and this period of history.
If you're looking for a biography in the strictest sense of the word, this is not the book for you. But if you would like to delve deeper in the dichotomy that was Thomas Jefferson -- dig in!
It goes well beyond what we've read in history books, and devotes one of its three parts to the time he spent in Paris after his wife died.
The books also explores his views on, among other things, slavery and how he could write "all men are created equal" and justify having slaves himself.
Any history lover should like this book.
*I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.*
It goes well beyond what we've read in history books, and devotes one of its three parts to the time he spent in Paris after his wife died.
The books also explores his views on, among other things, slavery and how he could write "all men are created equal" and justify having slaves himself.
Any history lover should like this book.
*I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review.*
Book 13 of 40 for 2016
Thomas Jefferson is our Founding Father who is and will always be to history a riddle wrapped in enigma. The slave owner who proclaimed "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."
In Most Blessed of Patriarchs Gordon-Reed and Onuf attempt to unwrap the enigma that is Thomas Jefferson. Be warned if your looking for a biography of Jefferson this is not it go pickup Meecham's Thomas Jefferson The Art of Power or Joseph Ellis' American Sphinx.
Jefferson wanted control of his world and left records of only what he wanted to share with history as such we don't know the full scope of his relationship with the Hemming's but we do know that Sally and her family had a special status in the life on the hilltop.
Jefferson had several opportunities to speak out about the cancer that was slavery on the country he helped to create. Even during his long retirement he never used his clout and status to move the debate over slavery forward just depending on the next generation to take care of the problem that was left behind by the Southern Founders.
Jefferson also gut sucked into the French Revolution and then when it turned ugly and heads began to roll down the streets of Paris his ego refused to allow him to admit that the Revolution went to far.
It's clear that we are in a period of historical scholarship where Jefferson is being reexamined and reevaluated. With Hamilton, Adams, and Washington being reexamined the Southern Republican faction may be loosing some of their luster.
Gordon-Reed and Onuf provide a great examination of Jefferson's motivations and actions and it gives the reader a chance to go deeper into Jefferson and his actions and motivations. Defiantly pick it up after you've read Meecham or Ellis and you will enjoy the deeper dive into this complex man.
Thomas Jefferson is our Founding Father who is and will always be to history a riddle wrapped in enigma. The slave owner who proclaimed "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."
In Most Blessed of Patriarchs Gordon-Reed and Onuf attempt to unwrap the enigma that is Thomas Jefferson. Be warned if your looking for a biography of Jefferson this is not it go pickup Meecham's Thomas Jefferson The Art of Power or Joseph Ellis' American Sphinx.
Jefferson wanted control of his world and left records of only what he wanted to share with history as such we don't know the full scope of his relationship with the Hemming's but we do know that Sally and her family had a special status in the life on the hilltop.
Jefferson had several opportunities to speak out about the cancer that was slavery on the country he helped to create. Even during his long retirement he never used his clout and status to move the debate over slavery forward just depending on the next generation to take care of the problem that was left behind by the Southern Founders.
Jefferson also gut sucked into the French Revolution and then when it turned ugly and heads began to roll down the streets of Paris his ego refused to allow him to admit that the Revolution went to far.
It's clear that we are in a period of historical scholarship where Jefferson is being reexamined and reevaluated. With Hamilton, Adams, and Washington being reexamined the Southern Republican faction may be loosing some of their luster.
Gordon-Reed and Onuf provide a great examination of Jefferson's motivations and actions and it gives the reader a chance to go deeper into Jefferson and his actions and motivations. Defiantly pick it up after you've read Meecham or Ellis and you will enjoy the deeper dive into this complex man.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
informative
medium-paced
I was SO intrigued by Annette Gordon-Reed when I heard her interviewed on a podcast a few years ago. She described Jefferson as embodying the crucial paradox of the founding of the U.S. - a white believer in individual freedom but also a slave-owner, who strategized about how to abolish the "peculiar institution" and condemned its effects on ethics and culture of his beloved Virginia, and yet who was intimately surrounded by its privileges from cradle to grave. Literally, his first memory was of being handed up by a African American man on a cushion into a wagon, and the last act on his deathbed was to ask his African American enslaved valet to rearrange the cushions supporting him there. His decades-long intimate relationship with Sally Hemings (a fascinating person herself! who negotiated her relationship with Jefferson when she was 14 years old, which was then a lot "older" than it would be now) was at the center of the second half of his life, although he never wrote about it and barely spoke of it to his white family and friends. But admittedly this book is about more than his life as an owner of enslaved human beings. It's a thematic biography, which I found interesting to contrast to a chronological one, exploring his thought and personal life - with chapters on "Home," "Virginia," "France," "Music," "Privacy and Prayers," as well as "Plantation" and "Politics" (the most boring, if you ask me). He was conflict-avoidant, a terrible farmer, a constant scholar, irresponsible with money, a lover of fine art and wine, devoted to his family, a distant father, a private homebody, an ambitious climber and performer, a man of privilege who never questioned his place at the center of his family and plantation, and yet also who recognized that slavery was the poisoned heart of his new state and new nation. Gordon-Reed posits this as a very American way to be, both then and now, and all the more fascinating wrapped up in a single person. I'm now reading her book about the history the Hemings family, a perfect (essential?) companion to the Jefferson biography.