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You Are Here: Home > History Books > Gallic Wars > Item 28
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Thomas Jefferson: A Life
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by Willard Sterne Randall
Sales Rank: 40157
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List Price: $20.00
$13.60
At Amazon
on 11-27-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 736 pages
Published by: Harper Perennial June 18, 1994
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0060976179
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0060976170
Book Dimensions:
8 x 5.3 x 1.6 inches
Weighs: 1.3 pounds
Product Review
A biography of Thomas Jefferson, who despite his legendary intelligence and political savvy, could be ruthless, not to mention lawless, in his efforts to preserve his causes. Jefferson operated on two levels, as his opposition to Slavery as a slaveowner attests. But as Willard Sterne Randall argues, this duality is what made him so effective. Whether Jefferson's 1784 draft of Virginia's constitution "prefigured the founding documents of republics in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, as well as the Confederate States of America," as Randall claims, is questionable, but his impact on international trade, diplomatic discussions and the success of the state of Virginia cannot be disputed.
From Publishers Weekly
Randall's masterful, gracefully written portrait brings us closer to Jefferson than any previous biography. The self-taught stoic who tried to make himself an embodiment of the Age of Reason was also, in Randall's view, a tortured romantic who kept a pledge to his dying wife not to remarry. Jefferson fell passionately in love with at least two married women, including British painter Maria Cosway with whom he gallivanted in Paris. As a statesman he could act illegally and ruthlessly if he perceived a serious threat to one of his causes, as in his drafting of secret orders that enabled George Rogers Clark to seize territory for Virginia under cover of the Revolution. Randall, biographer of Benedict Arnold and Benjamin Franklin, finds that Jefferson as president was an "ambivalent pragmatist" who often set aside his principles to achieve his goals. Randall dismisses as "preposterous" biographer Fawn Brodie's theory that the slave Sally Hemings was Jefferson's concubine; Brodie, he charges, relied on mere gossip and highly suspect, uncorroborated memoirs by ex-slaves.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Thomas Jefferson: A Life (Hardcover)
Randall may have uncovered just about every fact there is about Thomas Jefferson. The fact that he dedicated pages evenly to each one is where this book fails. Thomas Jefferson could be the most complex figure in American history, but most people won't realize that fact from reading this biography because their minds will be numb from reading the first 300 pages of the book dedicated to his early law career that really played little role in the development of Jefferson. The author tries to justify his inclusion of all this material by theorizing that his contempt for the law system turned Jefferson's mind towards changing the system and thus revolution, and once committed to revolution his ideas on government were influenced by his law teachings, but dedicating 50 pages to Jefferson part in exploting a loop hole in Virinia law to help the First Families acquire more land serves more to make the reader flip through the pages scanning for interesting dates to resume reading. The real dissapointment in the book is that in spite of all this research, Randall fails to really tackle Jefferson's hypocricies and puzzling political movements. Perhaps he was unable to find good cause for Jefferson's motives, but to ignore his obvious faults makes this biography toothless. His borderline treasonous behavior as both Washington's Secretary of State and Adams' Vice-President, his obvious hypocrisy between champion of human equality and slaveowner, and his change of heart about the institution between his authorship of the Declaration and his ascension to the Presidency (along with the glossing over of his decision-making process during the Louisiana Purchase), are all controversial actions of a man usually considered "great" without much examination. This book would be the proper forum to defend the actions, explain the rationale behind them, or if failing to discover one, call out Jefferson for these personal blemishes. Randall does none of this, either lamely glossing over the points or omitting them altogether. After becoming president, the story gets so thin that it makes one wonder if Randall himself got bored with his research and writing of Jefferson's early career that he simply wanted to finish the book. He chose the wrong part of Jefferson's life to cut from. The book gets 2 stars for the information it contained, and doesn't get 3 more because of its presentation and lack of the information that it should have. There must be more engaging biographies of Jefferson than this one.
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Thomas Jefferson: A Life
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Price: $13.60
Updated on 11-27-2008.
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