NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER Following Thomas Jefferson from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to his retirement in Monticello, Joseph J. Ellis unravels the contradictions of the Jeffersonian character. He gives us the slaveholding libertarian who was capable of decrying mescegenation while maintaing an intimate relationship with his slave, Sally Hemmings; the enemy of government power who exercisdd it audaciously as president; the visionarty who remained curiously blind to the inconsistencies in his nature. American Sphinx is a marvel of scholarship, a delight to read, and an essential gloss on the Jeffersonian legacy.

In The Mind of Thomas Jefferson, one of the foremost historians of Jefferson and his time, Peter S. Onuf, offers a collection of essays that seeks to historicize one of our nation’s founding fathers. Challenging current attempts to appropriate Jefferson to serve all manner of contemporary political agendas, Onuf argues that historians must look at Jefferson’s language and life within the context of his own place and time. In this effort to restore Jefferson to his own world, Onuf reconnects that world to ours, providing a fresh look at the distinction between private and public aspects of his character that Jefferson himself took such pains to cultivate. Breaking through Jefferson’s alleged opacity as a person by collapsing the contemporary interpretive frameworks often used to diagnose his psychological and moral states, Onuf raises new questions about what was on Jefferson’s mind as he looked toward an uncertain future. Particularly striking is his argument that Jefferson’s character as a moralist is nowhere more evident, ironically, than in his engagement with the institution of slavery. At once reinvigorating the tension between past and present and offering a new way to view our connection to one of our nation’s founders, The Mind of Thomas Jefferson helps redefine both Jefferson and his time and American nationhood.

Jefferson regarded Jesus as a moral guide rather than a divinity. In his unique interpretation of the Bible, he highlights Christ's ethical teachings, discarding the scriptures' supernatural elements, to reflect the deist view of religion.

The author of the Declaration of Independence and a two-term president, Jefferson was influential in charting the course of America. But he was also an architect, an inventor, and a farmer, a man of great learning who lived his life with a remarkable energy and optimism. Included in this volume are excerpts from the works of prominent historians and biographers, and the words of Jefferson himself -- his speeches, papers and treatises and excerpts from Jefferson's voluminous personal correspondence.Illustrated by photos and artwork from the collections of museums and collections from across the country, this volume brings to vibrant life the many sides, and the human side, of Thomas Jefferson. Time Line. Index.

The materials for this volume are principally derived from the posthumous works of Mr. Jefferson himself. These works were received with extraordinary approbation by one great portion of the public, as was the case indeed with everything which ever came from that remarkable man; and by another considerable portion with a corresponding degree of dissatisfaction, always to be expected from the well-known opinions of the author on certain fundamental points upon which a strongly marked division of public sentiment has prevailed since the foundation of the federal government.