Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 0679764410 Study Copy Quality/Random Hi-liting and Margin notes throughout/ light shelf wear / edge wear cover / pages light discoloration around edges//"Buy with Confidence-Satisfaction Guaranteed! Customer Service Makes All the Difference. " read more
Description: Very Good. 0679764410 25852 PB: spine smooth, text clean, cover has slight shelf wear-allow up to 21 business days for standard USPS media m ai l. wt1lbpf. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780679764410ISBN:0679764410
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Small crease on front cover at bottom. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 464 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Description: Fine. Trade Paperback. Vintage, 1998. Fine Book. Overall, a clean and tight, lightly read copy. Media mail packed in protective bubble lined shipping bags, Priority in a Flat Rate Envelope. Shipped quickly. Prompt response to questions. read more
Description: NY: Knopf 1997, HB, 365p., SIGNED BY AUTHOR, signature only on title page, vg/vg, previous owner name stamp on front end page, light rubbing to spine ends. read more
Edition: 29th Printing
Binding: trade Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780679764410ISBN:0679764410
Description: Very Good + 5 x 8 trade paperback book. Tan and white lettering on the black spine with a color illustrated cover. American Sphinx is a marvel of scholarship, a delight to read, and an essential gloss on the Jeffersonian legacy. 440 pages. 29th Printing. 2 Mild cover stains on back cover. Very Good + condition. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 1998-04-07
ISBN-13:9780679764410ISBN:0679764410
Description: Like New. Clean, Unmarked Copy, Slight Wear on cover, Priority Shipping recommended for prompt delivery by USPS when offered, Delivery Confirmation on all domestic items where available. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books USA
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780679764410ISBN:0679764410
Description: Good. No DJ Issued. Good. No dust jacket as issued. has a tiny burn hole in cover and on 4 or so pgs. lightly browining edges, and a single pg. fold, has a little coverwear/edgewear, with a small amt. of creasing. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 464 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Edition, First Printing
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780679764410ISBN:0679764410
Description: Fine. No Jacket as Issued. Trade Paperback. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. First edition with complete number line present. A very gently used copy. Wrap has very light edge and corner wear. Text and pages are clean and bright. Spine uncreased. read more
Edition: Later printing
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, New York
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780679444909ISBN:0679444904
Description: Very Good+ in very good jacket. The Character of Thomas Jefferson. Lightest shelf wear, appears to be unread. Sixth printing with prize medal on jacket. 8vo, 365 pp. read more
"After reading the Adams bio, I was ready to hate Jefferson. He seemed such a snake and a liar. Ellis is one of my favorite historical biographers and he did a great job here. He showed Jefferson in all his complexity and contradictions. This is a man I probably would not have liked much in real life as he seems very slippery and too equivocal. But he was dedicated to the cause of individual rights (if you exclude his slaves!). I love how Ellis shows his characters through snippets rather than slogging through their lives. I usually feel I know them better this way and can remember more of the highlights. He takes a very psychological approach which helps with someone as convoluted as Jefferson."
"I really prefer to read biographies in which the author actually has some affection for his subject! Mr. Ellis treated Thomas Jefferson as a neurotic and idealistic man who just happened to experience a few flashes of brilliance because he was at the right place during the right time. Ellis was consistently patronizing and apologetic in his discussions about Thomas Jefferson's thoughts, ideas and actions. I generally expect a biographer to present his subject with an emphasis on his strengths and a few notes on his weaknesses as well. According to Joseph Ellis, Thomas Jefferson was essentially deeply flawed.... unable to form intimate relationships, thin-skinned, radically idealistic, hypocritical, self-deceptive... and the list goes on.
One can't help but wonder if Mr. Ellis saw Jefferson through the lens of his OWN neurosis. Ellis' own unsavory history of self-deception and public lies seems to have been reflected right back onto Thomas Jefferson. After all, isn't it true that it's almost impossible to interpret the thoughts and actions of others except through the lens of our own character? It's the ironic and temporal twist to the Biblical warning: "Judge not that ye be not judged." God will judge us, certainly, but already we judge everyone else according to our own character and our indictments of others certainly indict ourselves just as clearly. As Mr. Ellis seems indeed to have done here.
This biography was also a chronicle of Jefferson's political self mainly; the larger picture of his life was mostly ignored and it is that larger picture that makes Jefferson most interesting, I think. Ellis has written a long analysis of Jefferson's political actions and philosophies with a few personal incidents sprinkled in here and there. I think that possibly the most significant information I gained from the book was a better understanding of Whig philosophy and a clear account of the contest between the Federalists and the Republicans. I expected more of this book. I'm not sorry I read it, though--I just need to read more about Jefferson to get a less polarized opinion of him."
"A fascinating study of one of the genius personalities who brought the United States into being. Not a hard slog but one you need to pay attention to. We find that these men, while not perfect with benefit of 20/20 hindsight, were true to their convictions, Jefferson perhaps more than most. He was an idealist's idealist who was able to fight for his cause while seeing the need, on occasion, to do that which he felt necessary to preserve the republic--A study of being able to operate on two tracks while retaining his "Spirit of '76" fervor. (A side benefit was seeing that now all of the framers had the same perspective as the other while all being engaged in the work."
"Hard to believe that something written in 1997 can sound so dated. I say that because most of what Ellis says regarding Sally Hemmings is either wrong or not enough of a definitive statement to count one way or another. Clearly, Ellis, like Jefferson, was aware of how posterity would judge his writings. That aside, what an incredible work of scholarship. This is a very important book, not because Jefferson was such an important person, but because Jefferson was as complex and self-contradictory as the American story is. For a better understanding of the country, read this book."
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