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Thomas Jefferson: A Life
Combining firsthand scholarship and material drawn from the Jefferson Papers, Willard Sterne Randall calls on his skills as an investigative journalist to challenge long-held assumptions about the reasoning, motives, and works of this sage, philosopher, politician, and romantic. Exploring both Jefferson’s interior and public struggles, Randall sheds important light on Jefferson’s thoughts on slavery and his relationship with the slave Sally Hemmings, as well as Revolutionary and diplomatic intrigues.
736 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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About the author
Willard Sterne Randall
44 books71 followersWillard Sterne Randall is an American historian and author who specializes in biographies related to the American colonial period and the American Revolution. He teaches American history at Champlain College in Burlington, Vermont.
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January 5, 2020
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Willard Sterne Randall’s “Thomas Jefferson: A Life” was published in 1993. Randall spent the first seventeen years of his professional career as a journalist for a variety of Philadelphia-area publications. He later earned a Masters degree from Princeton and began a career as a historian and author. Among his nine books are biographies of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen. He is Professor Emeritus at Champlain College in Vermont.
When first published, this 595-page biography promised new insights into Jefferson’s legal career, his philosophy regarding slavery and his relationship with Sally Hemings. But while Randall’s background as an investigative journalist clearly aided in his research and analysis, his most notable assertion – that Jefferson never had a romantic relationship with Hemings – has not survived the test of time.
Randall’s biography of Jefferson is lengthy, chronologically organized, and often interesting…but frustratingly uneven in its pace and focus. Originally intended to document Jefferson’s years in France, the book’s scope was expanded at the request of Randall’s editors when it became obvious that a modern review of Jefferson’s entire life was needed. What resulted is a biography that carefully dissects Jefferson’s formative years but loses momentum by the zenith of his political power.
The author’s background as an investigative journalist is obvious from the book’s earliest pages – from the way he questions longstanding lore to his use of handwriting analysis to date certain of Jefferson’s letters and manuscripts. His literary style is crisp and straightforward, but rarely colorful or riveting. And while this book often seems a “life and times” study tightly focused on Jefferson’s world, it occasionally feels like a character study…but without the reader fully getting into Jefferson’s mind.
Jefferson’s lifelong animosity toward his mother is revealed more effectively than I can recall in any other biography of Jefferson I’ve read. Randall provides a useful, if too brief, introduction to Patrick Henry, and the author’s description of George Wythe (under whom Jefferson studied law) will almost certainly compel the motivated reader to seek out an excellent biography of Wythe.
This biography provides an impressively detailed review of Jefferson’s youth and undoubtedly offers the most insightful coverage of his legal studies and legal career that I’ve ever read. And portions of the narrative covering construction at Monticello and his relationship with Maria Cosway are consistently fascinating.
For readers interested in Jefferson’s early life, Randall’s biography is a good place to start; nearly 1/3 of the book is consumed by the decade he spent as a lawyer and young politician prior to authoring the Declaration of Independence. But fewer than three-dozen pages whisk the reader through Jefferson’s two-term presidency, and his retirement years garner less than a dozen pages.
Other shortcomings include generous treatment of Jefferson on the issue of slavery, the author’s dismissal of the possibility of a relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings and a failure to better introduce Jefferson’s most important contemporaries (such as Washington, Madison, Monroe and Hamilton) or more fully integrate them into the narrative.
In addition, familiarity with the Revolutionary War is implicitly assumed; historical context is often provided only as necessary to explain Jefferson’s actions at any given point in the narrative. As a result, most of the war takes place entirely off-stage while Jefferson is focused on reforming Virginia’s laws relating to religious freedom, primogeniture and education. And, finally, the book far too infrequently makes use of introductory paragraphs to foreshadow important points or highlight seminal themes or conclusions.
Overall, Willard Sterne Randall’s biography of Jefferson proves serviceable but far from exceptional. As a study of Jefferson’s legal studies and career it is uniquely valuable. But as a comprehensive and evenly-paced biography of Thomas Jefferson’s public and private lives and relationships it is significantly lacking.
Overall rating: 3½ stars
Willard Sterne Randall’s “Thomas Jefferson: A Life” was published in 1993. Randall spent the first seventeen years of his professional career as a journalist for a variety of Philadelphia-area publications. He later earned a Masters degree from Princeton and began a career as a historian and author. Among his nine books are biographies of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen. He is Professor Emeritus at Champlain College in Vermont.
When first published, this 595-page biography promised new insights into Jefferson’s legal career, his philosophy regarding slavery and his relationship with Sally Hemings. But while Randall’s background as an investigative journalist clearly aided in his research and analysis, his most notable assertion – that Jefferson never had a romantic relationship with Hemings – has not survived the test of time.
Randall’s biography of Jefferson is lengthy, chronologically organized, and often interesting…but frustratingly uneven in its pace and focus. Originally intended to document Jefferson’s years in France, the book’s scope was expanded at the request of Randall’s editors when it became obvious that a modern review of Jefferson’s entire life was needed. What resulted is a biography that carefully dissects Jefferson’s formative years but loses momentum by the zenith of his political power.
The author’s background as an investigative journalist is obvious from the book’s earliest pages – from the way he questions longstanding lore to his use of handwriting analysis to date certain of Jefferson’s letters and manuscripts. His literary style is crisp and straightforward, but rarely colorful or riveting. And while this book often seems a “life and times” study tightly focused on Jefferson’s world, it occasionally feels like a character study…but without the reader fully getting into Jefferson’s mind.
Jefferson’s lifelong animosity toward his mother is revealed more effectively than I can recall in any other biography of Jefferson I’ve read. Randall provides a useful, if too brief, introduction to Patrick Henry, and the author’s description of George Wythe (under whom Jefferson studied law) will almost certainly compel the motivated reader to seek out an excellent biography of Wythe.
This biography provides an impressively detailed review of Jefferson’s youth and undoubtedly offers the most insightful coverage of his legal studies and legal career that I’ve ever read. And portions of the narrative covering construction at Monticello and his relationship with Maria Cosway are consistently fascinating.
For readers interested in Jefferson’s early life, Randall’s biography is a good place to start; nearly 1/3 of the book is consumed by the decade he spent as a lawyer and young politician prior to authoring the Declaration of Independence. But fewer than three-dozen pages whisk the reader through Jefferson’s two-term presidency, and his retirement years garner less than a dozen pages.
Other shortcomings include generous treatment of Jefferson on the issue of slavery, the author’s dismissal of the possibility of a relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings and a failure to better introduce Jefferson’s most important contemporaries (such as Washington, Madison, Monroe and Hamilton) or more fully integrate them into the narrative.
In addition, familiarity with the Revolutionary War is implicitly assumed; historical context is often provided only as necessary to explain Jefferson’s actions at any given point in the narrative. As a result, most of the war takes place entirely off-stage while Jefferson is focused on reforming Virginia’s laws relating to religious freedom, primogeniture and education. And, finally, the book far too infrequently makes use of introductory paragraphs to foreshadow important points or highlight seminal themes or conclusions.
Overall, Willard Sterne Randall’s biography of Jefferson proves serviceable but far from exceptional. As a study of Jefferson’s legal studies and career it is uniquely valuable. But as a comprehensive and evenly-paced biography of Thomas Jefferson’s public and private lives and relationships it is significantly lacking.
Overall rating: 3½ stars
March 31, 2022
After previously reading Willard Sterne Randall's wonderful book about Benjamin Franklin and his son William, A Little Revenge, I had high expectations for his take on Thomas Jefferson. Unfortunately, my expectations were not nearly met. Overly detailed in certain parts, and completing lacking in context in others, this book came out quite uneven. This began immediately as in the Introduction on page xix, Randall calls Jefferson the "best-traveled" President until late in the 20th century. He repeats that assertion on page 367. Where is that coming from? Jefferson was extremely well-traveled, but not quite as much as John Quincy Adams was. And I can think of several other Presidents who were just as well-traveled as Jefferson was.
In his introduction, Randall writes that his original intention had been to cover only Jefferson's five years in Paris as Minister. Perhaps he should have stuck to that as this important part of Jefferson's life is covered in exquisite detail. At times Randall even goes to a day-by-day account of Jefferson's travels and activities, especially when he goes on an extended vacation through rural France, then along the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, and back. This part, despite being more detailed than I would have cared for, is quite interesting. Jefferson was a fascinating and complex man on many levels, with a massive variety of interests. He was intellectually curious about a great many things. Randall manages to capture that curiosity and provide a swift-moving narrative as Jefferson notes changes in topography, climate, people, and agriculture. This section is one of the strengths of the book although I did find it starting to drag towards the end (Randall devotes seven pages to Jefferson's English garden tour with John Adams - does the reader really need seven pages about that?). Another drawback here is that Randall provides no maps to help the reader visualize Jefferson's route to and from Italy.
However, before Jefferson's Paris years (which by themselves took up an out-sized portion of the book, pages 365-492), Randall spends an inordinate amount of time on Jefferson's early life, youth, and his rise in Virginia politics as a lawyer and then Delegate to the House of Burgesses. While I am glad that Randall did not commit the all-too-frequent mistake of blasting through a President's early years so that the man is middle-aged by page thirty, here he just takes way too long to move the story along. The reader is treated to page after page of mind-numbing discussion about colonial Virginia quitrent and escheat laws, and Jefferson's role in them. I cannot begin to tell you how exciting that was.
While Randall provides liberal does of criticism concerning Jefferson's many failings, he clearly has an overall positive orientation towards Jefferson, and I noticed a tendency to keep letting Jefferson come out looking better than his opponents. This happened time and again: with Adams, with Alexander Hamilton, with Patrick Henry, with John Marshall. No doubt all of those men, and others, are ripe for criticism of their own actions. But Jefferson had no shortage of personality flaws and compulsions. All too often these were, while being identified, minimized or offset by more positive attributes.
Randall really blows it concerning the Sally Hemings controversy. Writing on page 477: "It is impossible to believe that Jefferson abandoned his love for Maria Cosway [a married woman whom he was having an affair with while living in Paris] to force his affections on even the most beautiful adolescent slave girl, just as it is beyond belief that Jefferson would pay the blackmail demanded fifteen years later by a hireling political scrivener to keep the affair out of print." On that same page he says that the claims made "...by a man who described himself as Madison Jefferson, son of Jefferson and Sally Hemings... cannot be credited." Shortly after this book was published, DNA results pretty much conclusively showed that Jefferson did indeed have at least one child with Hemings, if not multiple children. I am okay with Randall not knowing this at the time he wrote this part; I am not okay with him dismissing the possibility of it being true. Why did he feel confident enough to take Jefferson's denials at face value?
Along with that, in general Randall makes Jefferson out to be better than he was on slavery by repeatedly stating that Jefferson did not like slavery and that he made attempts to end it. While this is true, and while I do believe that Jefferson - much like George Washington - had some serious moral concerns about the practice and the fact that he owned other human beings, he still owned enslaved people his entire life and after a certain point seemed resigned to not being able to convince his fellow aristocratic Virginia planters of the necessity of eliminating the inhumane practice. Jefferson's slaves brought in needed income for him. As it was, he was land-rich and cash-poor his entire life. He could not finance his expensive material hobbies without slavery.
The biggest issue overall that I had with this book is how top-heavy it was when it came to Jefferson's life. His years up to his return from France in 1789 take up most of the book. This is a 595 page book. Jefferson becomes President on page 547. Yes, after spending pages and pages discussing Jefferson's gardening habits and French travels, Randall dispenses with his presidency in about forty pages. How can that be? Jefferson's time as Washington's Secretary of State is likewise passed by rather quickly. These are important parts of his life, but Randall seems to think that the earlier periods deserved much more attention. He does not give any reasoning for this, but it seems to me that, after belatedly deciding to expand the scope of the book to beyond just the Paris years, he tried to cover all of the years after that as quickly as possible. The result is a biography heavily skewed towards the first half of Jefferson's life, while only breezing through his final thirty-seven years (his long, late-in-life correspondence with Adams is given one sentence).
If you are primarily interested in the early Jefferson, and/or his life as a diplomat in France, you might enjoy this book. If your interest is geared more towards a different period of Jefferson's life, or if you are looking for a complete biography about Jefferson, this is not the book for you. The writing is not crisp, and certain events lack context while at the same time the reader is deluged with minutiae on relatively inconsequential matters.
Grade: D
In his introduction, Randall writes that his original intention had been to cover only Jefferson's five years in Paris as Minister. Perhaps he should have stuck to that as this important part of Jefferson's life is covered in exquisite detail. At times Randall even goes to a day-by-day account of Jefferson's travels and activities, especially when he goes on an extended vacation through rural France, then along the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, and back. This part, despite being more detailed than I would have cared for, is quite interesting. Jefferson was a fascinating and complex man on many levels, with a massive variety of interests. He was intellectually curious about a great many things. Randall manages to capture that curiosity and provide a swift-moving narrative as Jefferson notes changes in topography, climate, people, and agriculture. This section is one of the strengths of the book although I did find it starting to drag towards the end (Randall devotes seven pages to Jefferson's English garden tour with John Adams - does the reader really need seven pages about that?). Another drawback here is that Randall provides no maps to help the reader visualize Jefferson's route to and from Italy.
However, before Jefferson's Paris years (which by themselves took up an out-sized portion of the book, pages 365-492), Randall spends an inordinate amount of time on Jefferson's early life, youth, and his rise in Virginia politics as a lawyer and then Delegate to the House of Burgesses. While I am glad that Randall did not commit the all-too-frequent mistake of blasting through a President's early years so that the man is middle-aged by page thirty, here he just takes way too long to move the story along. The reader is treated to page after page of mind-numbing discussion about colonial Virginia quitrent and escheat laws, and Jefferson's role in them. I cannot begin to tell you how exciting that was.
While Randall provides liberal does of criticism concerning Jefferson's many failings, he clearly has an overall positive orientation towards Jefferson, and I noticed a tendency to keep letting Jefferson come out looking better than his opponents. This happened time and again: with Adams, with Alexander Hamilton, with Patrick Henry, with John Marshall. No doubt all of those men, and others, are ripe for criticism of their own actions. But Jefferson had no shortage of personality flaws and compulsions. All too often these were, while being identified, minimized or offset by more positive attributes.
Randall really blows it concerning the Sally Hemings controversy. Writing on page 477: "It is impossible to believe that Jefferson abandoned his love for Maria Cosway [a married woman whom he was having an affair with while living in Paris] to force his affections on even the most beautiful adolescent slave girl, just as it is beyond belief that Jefferson would pay the blackmail demanded fifteen years later by a hireling political scrivener to keep the affair out of print." On that same page he says that the claims made "...by a man who described himself as Madison Jefferson, son of Jefferson and Sally Hemings... cannot be credited." Shortly after this book was published, DNA results pretty much conclusively showed that Jefferson did indeed have at least one child with Hemings, if not multiple children. I am okay with Randall not knowing this at the time he wrote this part; I am not okay with him dismissing the possibility of it being true. Why did he feel confident enough to take Jefferson's denials at face value?
Along with that, in general Randall makes Jefferson out to be better than he was on slavery by repeatedly stating that Jefferson did not like slavery and that he made attempts to end it. While this is true, and while I do believe that Jefferson - much like George Washington - had some serious moral concerns about the practice and the fact that he owned other human beings, he still owned enslaved people his entire life and after a certain point seemed resigned to not being able to convince his fellow aristocratic Virginia planters of the necessity of eliminating the inhumane practice. Jefferson's slaves brought in needed income for him. As it was, he was land-rich and cash-poor his entire life. He could not finance his expensive material hobbies without slavery.
The biggest issue overall that I had with this book is how top-heavy it was when it came to Jefferson's life. His years up to his return from France in 1789 take up most of the book. This is a 595 page book. Jefferson becomes President on page 547. Yes, after spending pages and pages discussing Jefferson's gardening habits and French travels, Randall dispenses with his presidency in about forty pages. How can that be? Jefferson's time as Washington's Secretary of State is likewise passed by rather quickly. These are important parts of his life, but Randall seems to think that the earlier periods deserved much more attention. He does not give any reasoning for this, but it seems to me that, after belatedly deciding to expand the scope of the book to beyond just the Paris years, he tried to cover all of the years after that as quickly as possible. The result is a biography heavily skewed towards the first half of Jefferson's life, while only breezing through his final thirty-seven years (his long, late-in-life correspondence with Adams is given one sentence).
If you are primarily interested in the early Jefferson, and/or his life as a diplomat in France, you might enjoy this book. If your interest is geared more towards a different period of Jefferson's life, or if you are looking for a complete biography about Jefferson, this is not the book for you. The writing is not crisp, and certain events lack context while at the same time the reader is deluged with minutiae on relatively inconsequential matters.
Grade: D
July 7, 2009
There are dozens of books on Jefferson, and while this volume is comprehensive, fairly objective, and mostly readable, I do offer a few opinions for the potential reader:
This biography dwells in extreme detail on the legal and philosophical history of Jefferson's development as one of our founding fathers, mostly in his early years in Virginia. Of 590 pages, we don't get to his time as president until page 550! This is not the book to read if you want an in depth study of his two presidential terms. Certainly his work as a lawyer and Virgina statesman were instrumental in his future political life, but it took me quite a while to work through the middle 1/3 of this book. This may be partially due to Randall's writing, which at times is repetitive. A more thorough editing would have greatly improved this biography.
Often, the book reads as a history of early America and the State of Virginia, with Jefferson's contributions interspersed. Context is one thing, but presumably anyone reading this book is already familiar with American history. Jefferson was one of the most complicated and intriguing figures in history, but there were several times where I wanted more personal information on the man, and less on the time and place he lived in. I would have liked more study of his architectural, scientific and academic pursuits, but there are probably other books that cover that. The book does shed some light on his personal life, his strained relationship with women and the numerous, tragic family losses.
Overall this is a good biography of one of the most intelligent and complex men to have ever lived, and I certainly learned a lot about him, and early America.
This biography dwells in extreme detail on the legal and philosophical history of Jefferson's development as one of our founding fathers, mostly in his early years in Virginia. Of 590 pages, we don't get to his time as president until page 550! This is not the book to read if you want an in depth study of his two presidential terms. Certainly his work as a lawyer and Virgina statesman were instrumental in his future political life, but it took me quite a while to work through the middle 1/3 of this book. This may be partially due to Randall's writing, which at times is repetitive. A more thorough editing would have greatly improved this biography.
Often, the book reads as a history of early America and the State of Virginia, with Jefferson's contributions interspersed. Context is one thing, but presumably anyone reading this book is already familiar with American history. Jefferson was one of the most complicated and intriguing figures in history, but there were several times where I wanted more personal information on the man, and less on the time and place he lived in. I would have liked more study of his architectural, scientific and academic pursuits, but there are probably other books that cover that. The book does shed some light on his personal life, his strained relationship with women and the numerous, tragic family losses.
Overall this is a good biography of one of the most intelligent and complex men to have ever lived, and I certainly learned a lot about him, and early America.
June 16, 2016
Comprehensive. Delves deeply into the origins of Jefferson's world view and brings light to all areas of his life. This isn't for the person wanting the newest theory about his relationships with his slaves, but you'll better understand his actual relationships with everyone in his life.
You'll be surprised, as I was, to learn the depth of his abolitionist leanings, his passionate relationship with an English painter, and his ruthlessness in politics. Thomas Jefferson was simply brilliant.
You'll be surprised, as I was, to learn the depth of his abolitionist leanings, his passionate relationship with an English painter, and his ruthlessness in politics. Thomas Jefferson was simply brilliant.
May 22, 2009
Long before William Jefferson Clinton, another child prodigy Southern Democratic/republican President lead his country to prosperity and expansion amidst sex ridden scandal and recriminations. Bubba Bill even duplicated his name-sake's penchant for financial scandal. But I don't want to belabor the this comparison. After all, before Jefferson, we had another cash poor expansion minded patrician named Julius Caesar who founded another similar kind of republican empire.
The thing is, so much has been written about Jefferson's life and its every nuance has been so well analysed and then specialized that it is sometimes hard for the general reader to get an overview about one of our most gifted presidents through all of the noise. This 10 year old college textbook is still the best introduction to one of the most fascinating men in history.
The book moves steadily through the eight periods of Jefferson's life: His childhood with the loss of his father in adolescence; his education and early years as a land speculator's lawyer; his early legislative efforts in the house of burgess; his reluctant efforts at the Continental Congress followed by his controversial revolutionary governorship; his romantic times as ambassador to France; his time as Washington's Secretary of State; His Presidency; and the two or so decades of his life after his Presidency. Randall offers tantalizing tidbits not often covered in other biographies. For example, Jefferson was a land speculator's lawyer who used legal devices to tie up lands for no money. Also, while we know he moved the Virginia Capitol to Richmond, less well known is his disgrace for "running away" during Benedict Arnold's invasion of Virginia during the Revolutionary War.
The biographer remembers to cover other important personages like the Marquis the Lafayette, George Wyeth, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and John Adams. He lists Jefferson's proteges, Madison, Monroe, and Quincy Adams (the next three Presidents). Often, he looks at these lives using Jefferson's own words from his over 27000 pieces of correspondence. The work is scholarly enough that you feel that the author read every piece of that correspondence, but thankfully this book has none of the stuffy prose endemic to that type of scholarship.
Nor does the writer ever forget to cover Mr. Jefferson's loves. His wife Martha (or Patty) who died after child birth; his lover Maria Hadfield Cosway. And he convinced me that Jefferson did not have an affair with Sally Hemings his slave, because she would have been too young and he just was not there during the conception of her children.
The book. of course, covers major events, like Jefferson's general dislike of the edited version of his Declaration of Independence. The Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark Expedition during his Presidency (Merriweather Lewis was his cousin). But, more importantly, the book spends time looking at Jefferson's world in a way that Jefferson himself might have looked at it. His description of Jefferson's trip through the south of France and North Italy---to steal Piedmont rice, no less---reads like a romantic travelogue written by Jefferson.
The book adroitly and quite succinctly covers early party politics by describing the battle between Federalists lead first by Adams and then Chief Justice John Marshall, and Jefferson's and Madison's Democrats. I never understood that part of American political history until I read this book. Ironically, while Jefferson's ideology "won" during his time, his views of states rights and small government were ultimately defeated by his admirer Abraham Lincoln.
In the end, Jefferson the architect/philosopher/viticulturalist (our first Robert Parker!)/inventor/naturalist and bad accountant comes across as a multi-layered and conflicted person (albeit a Patrician born to high office) like many people. He was a principaled intellectual who knew he had to compromise to achieve his goals. Like with Slavery, while he fought against it almost his whole life, he kept slaves until he died, emancipating but a few.
Mr. Randall's biography is the perfect balance between the breathless worship of Joseph Ellis' "The American Sphinx" and muck raking bodice ripper of Fawn Mackay Brodie's "An Intimate History". It is breezy without being as low-caloric as David McCullough's "John Adams". Throughout, the author uses journalistic devices like foreshadowing and headlining that occasionally comes across as repetitive.
My biggest gripe about the book is that it spent far too little time talking about arguably Jefferson's greatest period, his presidency and his legacy. There is maybe three or four chapters near the end. After the huge build up to this point, I would have like to read more about his Presidency and its aftermath. Perhaps the author ran out of space.
Perhaps the author became so imbued with Jefferson's life that he took on Jefferson's attitude. In the end, Jefferson listed in his own epitaph as his accomplishments, the Declaration, the University of Virginia, and his family. He didn't think it important enough to mention that he was elected and served two terms as the President of the United States of America, a country he helped to found.
The thing is, so much has been written about Jefferson's life and its every nuance has been so well analysed and then specialized that it is sometimes hard for the general reader to get an overview about one of our most gifted presidents through all of the noise. This 10 year old college textbook is still the best introduction to one of the most fascinating men in history.
The book moves steadily through the eight periods of Jefferson's life: His childhood with the loss of his father in adolescence; his education and early years as a land speculator's lawyer; his early legislative efforts in the house of burgess; his reluctant efforts at the Continental Congress followed by his controversial revolutionary governorship; his romantic times as ambassador to France; his time as Washington's Secretary of State; His Presidency; and the two or so decades of his life after his Presidency. Randall offers tantalizing tidbits not often covered in other biographies. For example, Jefferson was a land speculator's lawyer who used legal devices to tie up lands for no money. Also, while we know he moved the Virginia Capitol to Richmond, less well known is his disgrace for "running away" during Benedict Arnold's invasion of Virginia during the Revolutionary War.
The biographer remembers to cover other important personages like the Marquis the Lafayette, George Wyeth, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and John Adams. He lists Jefferson's proteges, Madison, Monroe, and Quincy Adams (the next three Presidents). Often, he looks at these lives using Jefferson's own words from his over 27000 pieces of correspondence. The work is scholarly enough that you feel that the author read every piece of that correspondence, but thankfully this book has none of the stuffy prose endemic to that type of scholarship.
Nor does the writer ever forget to cover Mr. Jefferson's loves. His wife Martha (or Patty) who died after child birth; his lover Maria Hadfield Cosway. And he convinced me that Jefferson did not have an affair with Sally Hemings his slave, because she would have been too young and he just was not there during the conception of her children.
The book. of course, covers major events, like Jefferson's general dislike of the edited version of his Declaration of Independence. The Louisiana Purchase and Lewis and Clark Expedition during his Presidency (Merriweather Lewis was his cousin). But, more importantly, the book spends time looking at Jefferson's world in a way that Jefferson himself might have looked at it. His description of Jefferson's trip through the south of France and North Italy---to steal Piedmont rice, no less---reads like a romantic travelogue written by Jefferson.
The book adroitly and quite succinctly covers early party politics by describing the battle between Federalists lead first by Adams and then Chief Justice John Marshall, and Jefferson's and Madison's Democrats. I never understood that part of American political history until I read this book. Ironically, while Jefferson's ideology "won" during his time, his views of states rights and small government were ultimately defeated by his admirer Abraham Lincoln.
In the end, Jefferson the architect/philosopher/viticulturalist (our first Robert Parker!)/inventor/naturalist and bad accountant comes across as a multi-layered and conflicted person (albeit a Patrician born to high office) like many people. He was a principaled intellectual who knew he had to compromise to achieve his goals. Like with Slavery, while he fought against it almost his whole life, he kept slaves until he died, emancipating but a few.
Mr. Randall's biography is the perfect balance between the breathless worship of Joseph Ellis' "The American Sphinx" and muck raking bodice ripper of Fawn Mackay Brodie's "An Intimate History". It is breezy without being as low-caloric as David McCullough's "John Adams". Throughout, the author uses journalistic devices like foreshadowing and headlining that occasionally comes across as repetitive.
My biggest gripe about the book is that it spent far too little time talking about arguably Jefferson's greatest period, his presidency and his legacy. There is maybe three or four chapters near the end. After the huge build up to this point, I would have like to read more about his Presidency and its aftermath. Perhaps the author ran out of space.
Perhaps the author became so imbued with Jefferson's life that he took on Jefferson's attitude. In the end, Jefferson listed in his own epitaph as his accomplishments, the Declaration, the University of Virginia, and his family. He didn't think it important enough to mention that he was elected and served two terms as the President of the United States of America, a country he helped to found.
December 16, 2022
Actual rating 3.5 stars
I took me awhile to get through this, but I feel I got a good overview of Jefferson’s life. There is actually on,y one chapter on his two terms as president so further reading may be necessary.
I took me awhile to get through this, but I feel I got a good overview of Jefferson’s life. There is actually on,y one chapter on his two terms as president so further reading may be necessary.
October 26, 2020
Why review a Jefferson biography that's more than a quarter century old, when anyone interested in Jefferson is likely to seek out a newer interpretation from the likes of Meacham or Boles, or a classic from Malone or Peterson? For precisely that reason - because Willard Stern Randall's book might get overlooked, but it shouldn't.
Randall provides a very thorough, readable account of Jefferson's formative years that no other single volume on Jefferson that I've read comes close to matching. Jefferson himself didn't care much for legal work, so his legal career is often given cursory review or overlooked altogether, considered a mere stepping stone to his political career - Jon Meacham's biography, for example, devotes a scattered few paragraphs to this time of Jefferson's life, in an apparent rush to get to the "good stuff" of the Revolutionary era and the Declaration of Independence. But Randall devotes chapters to this period, and in so doing, he offers important insights on how Jefferson's legal work influenced his thoughts on everything from the separation of church and state, to his interest in expansionism and settling the American West.
Later, Randall devotes more time and attention than others do to Jefferson's actions as Virginia governor and his day-to-day activities during his time in France. It's an insightful but leisurely journey, as Randall takes his time setting the scene and telling his story, in an engaging way that never leaves you feeling impatient for what's coming next.
And then Randall hits fast-forward and races through the rest of Jefferson's life at breakneck speed. A single chapter devoted to Jefferson's two-term presidency hits all the highlights - look, it's the Louisiana Purchase! The Lewis and Clark expedition! The Embargo Act! - then there's a final chapter on Jefferson's retirement, with one paragraph about his renewed relationship with John Adams (about which entire books have been written), two paragraphs about his founding of the University of Virginia, and then he's dead. The end.
I've long been looking for a "perfect" one-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson, and the deeper I got into this book, the more I was hoping this would be it. So it's a terrible shame that Randall was either rushing to wrap up his book, or was simply less interested in Jefferson at the peak of his political power than he was in earlier, well-described events such as Jefferson and Adams' pleasant tour of English gardens, or Jefferson's travels through Italy, which together occupy nearly as many pages as Jefferson's entire presidency.
The brevity of this section also prevents Randall from offering much analysis of Jefferson's thoughts and actions, or making any attempt to get inside his head. What some see as Jefferson's contradictions or outright hypocrisy, Randall explains away as political pragmatism. What some see as Jefferson's failures - he was wrong in stubbornly favoring France, he was wrong on the issue of nullification, he was wrong in opposing the Constitution, he was wrong in favoring a weak central government - Randall doesn't really explore at all. I don't mind a hagiography so much if the author at least acknowledges and argues against opposing views, but Randall makes no attempt to refute criticism of Jefferson because he doesn't really introduce any criticism of Jefferson.
Finally, there's the issue of Sally Hemings. I knew this book was published in 1993, long before new scholarship and DNA testing changed the way that part of Jefferson's story is told, so the book was bound to be a bit dated in that regard. But if Randall had simply said, these are the allegations and we just don't know the truth, it would have been easy to give those passages a pass as a product of their time. But he's so vociferous in his outright dismissal that Jefferson could possibly have had a relationship or relations with Hemings, that it's very distracting and very outdated. And it colors his later analysis of Jefferson's position on slavery - he gives Jefferson credit for freeing some of his slaves, but now we know why most of those he freed were Hemingses, and that his motivation wasn't benevolence or a sudden epiphany about the evils of slavery. More modern analyses of Jefferson's views on race and slavery come to very different conclusions than Randall, who gives him the benefit of the doubt that he really didn't like slavery or care for owning slaves, and at least he did that "good deed" by freeing some of them, so good for him.
So this was not the perfect one-volume Jefferson biography I had hoped it would be. But if you were to pick up another biography that does a better and more thorough job exploring Jefferson's political thoughts and presidency, then you could do worse than to pick up Randall's book for an excellent, insightful and well-told story of Jefferson's early life. The two together just might be as close to a perfect Jefferson biography as is possible.
Randall provides a very thorough, readable account of Jefferson's formative years that no other single volume on Jefferson that I've read comes close to matching. Jefferson himself didn't care much for legal work, so his legal career is often given cursory review or overlooked altogether, considered a mere stepping stone to his political career - Jon Meacham's biography, for example, devotes a scattered few paragraphs to this time of Jefferson's life, in an apparent rush to get to the "good stuff" of the Revolutionary era and the Declaration of Independence. But Randall devotes chapters to this period, and in so doing, he offers important insights on how Jefferson's legal work influenced his thoughts on everything from the separation of church and state, to his interest in expansionism and settling the American West.
Later, Randall devotes more time and attention than others do to Jefferson's actions as Virginia governor and his day-to-day activities during his time in France. It's an insightful but leisurely journey, as Randall takes his time setting the scene and telling his story, in an engaging way that never leaves you feeling impatient for what's coming next.
And then Randall hits fast-forward and races through the rest of Jefferson's life at breakneck speed. A single chapter devoted to Jefferson's two-term presidency hits all the highlights - look, it's the Louisiana Purchase! The Lewis and Clark expedition! The Embargo Act! - then there's a final chapter on Jefferson's retirement, with one paragraph about his renewed relationship with John Adams (about which entire books have been written), two paragraphs about his founding of the University of Virginia, and then he's dead. The end.
I've long been looking for a "perfect" one-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson, and the deeper I got into this book, the more I was hoping this would be it. So it's a terrible shame that Randall was either rushing to wrap up his book, or was simply less interested in Jefferson at the peak of his political power than he was in earlier, well-described events such as Jefferson and Adams' pleasant tour of English gardens, or Jefferson's travels through Italy, which together occupy nearly as many pages as Jefferson's entire presidency.
The brevity of this section also prevents Randall from offering much analysis of Jefferson's thoughts and actions, or making any attempt to get inside his head. What some see as Jefferson's contradictions or outright hypocrisy, Randall explains away as political pragmatism. What some see as Jefferson's failures - he was wrong in stubbornly favoring France, he was wrong on the issue of nullification, he was wrong in opposing the Constitution, he was wrong in favoring a weak central government - Randall doesn't really explore at all. I don't mind a hagiography so much if the author at least acknowledges and argues against opposing views, but Randall makes no attempt to refute criticism of Jefferson because he doesn't really introduce any criticism of Jefferson.
Finally, there's the issue of Sally Hemings. I knew this book was published in 1993, long before new scholarship and DNA testing changed the way that part of Jefferson's story is told, so the book was bound to be a bit dated in that regard. But if Randall had simply said, these are the allegations and we just don't know the truth, it would have been easy to give those passages a pass as a product of their time. But he's so vociferous in his outright dismissal that Jefferson could possibly have had a relationship or relations with Hemings, that it's very distracting and very outdated. And it colors his later analysis of Jefferson's position on slavery - he gives Jefferson credit for freeing some of his slaves, but now we know why most of those he freed were Hemingses, and that his motivation wasn't benevolence or a sudden epiphany about the evils of slavery. More modern analyses of Jefferson's views on race and slavery come to very different conclusions than Randall, who gives him the benefit of the doubt that he really didn't like slavery or care for owning slaves, and at least he did that "good deed" by freeing some of them, so good for him.
So this was not the perfect one-volume Jefferson biography I had hoped it would be. But if you were to pick up another biography that does a better and more thorough job exploring Jefferson's political thoughts and presidency, then you could do worse than to pick up Randall's book for an excellent, insightful and well-told story of Jefferson's early life. The two together just might be as close to a perfect Jefferson biography as is possible.
November 28, 2021
Academic account of a polymath President
January 28, 2016
Randall's biography of Jefferson is extremely detailed -- EXTREMELY detailed -- but not always where you'd like it to be. For example, I really didn't need all of the information about what coffee houses Jefferson frequented, the lineage of his horses, the 7 pages about his tours of English gardens, and his 22 pages -- yes, I said 22 pages -- about the Italian countryside. It makes little sense to me how a 600-page book can expend such finicky detail on gardens and less than 100 pages on his term as Vice President and his TWO terms as President.
Also, Randall's biography is apologetic to the point of being equivocal. My overall impression of Jefferson is that he was, to put it politely, a man of contradictions, or, to be less polite, extremely hypocritical. There's no denying he was a genius, but Randall seems to spend a lot of time trying to convince his readers that Jefferson wasn't the bastard that he frequently proved himself to be, and the result was that I don't find this biography to be completely credible.
There was much downplaying -- and sometimes a hint of denial -- that Jefferson seduced (on more than one occasion) his friends' wives. There was also much made of Jefferson's anti-slavery tendencies, despite the fact that he never made a move to free any of his slaves within his own lifetime, used the sale of slaves as a way to pay his compulsive-shopping debts, and advocated, if the slaves ever were freed, their immediate deportation to areas uninhabited by whites.
In addition, Randall dismisses Jefferson's rumored affair with Sally Hemmings as being "preposterous suppositions" and furthered speculation that the real father of Hemmings's children was his nephew, a son of his sister and Dabney Carr. In the next few years, however, "a consensus began to emerge after the results of a DNA analysis in 1998, which showed no match between the Carr male line, proposed for more than 150 years as the father(s), and the one Hemings descendant tested. It did show a match between the Jefferson male line." So much for preposterous suppositions.
Also, Randall's biography is apologetic to the point of being equivocal. My overall impression of Jefferson is that he was, to put it politely, a man of contradictions, or, to be less polite, extremely hypocritical. There's no denying he was a genius, but Randall seems to spend a lot of time trying to convince his readers that Jefferson wasn't the bastard that he frequently proved himself to be, and the result was that I don't find this biography to be completely credible.
There was much downplaying -- and sometimes a hint of denial -- that Jefferson seduced (on more than one occasion) his friends' wives. There was also much made of Jefferson's anti-slavery tendencies, despite the fact that he never made a move to free any of his slaves within his own lifetime, used the sale of slaves as a way to pay his compulsive-shopping debts, and advocated, if the slaves ever were freed, their immediate deportation to areas uninhabited by whites.
In addition, Randall dismisses Jefferson's rumored affair with Sally Hemmings as being "preposterous suppositions" and furthered speculation that the real father of Hemmings's children was his nephew, a son of his sister and Dabney Carr. In the next few years, however, "a consensus began to emerge after the results of a DNA analysis in 1998, which showed no match between the Carr male line, proposed for more than 150 years as the father(s), and the one Hemings descendant tested. It did show a match between the Jefferson male line." So much for preposterous suppositions.
August 3, 2010
This biography is my least favorite Presidential biography that I've read. It is good if you are interested in the events of Thomas Jefferson's life before he became Secretary of State; it is poor if you are interested in what happened while he served in the federal government. The first couple hundred pages are devoted to his law career in Virginia and the next couple hundred to his time in France. It is not until page 493 of 595 that the book gets to the year 1790 when he became Secretary of State. Therefore, there is only 100 pages devoted to the last 36 years of his life. I kept expecting Mr. Randall to tie in the first years of his life to the events that helped shape this nation but in the end it seemed that Mr. Randall got tired of writing about him.
December 2, 2017
The book is a thorough biography of Jefferson. It focuses on his early life and the shaping of his outlook and values. A surprisingly small amount of the book is dedicated to Jefferson’s time as Secretary of State and as President. More time is spent on his college years than on his diplomatic career. Jefferson was shown to be a perfectionist who devoted himself to study as a young man and who tirelessly studied legal theory to win a case.
The book was interesting since I knew the least about his early life. I would have liked to hear more about the effects of his political philosophy on his time in Washington’s cabinet and in the White House.
As a reference for details about Jefferson’s life.
The book was interesting since I knew the least about his early life. I would have liked to hear more about the effects of his political philosophy on his time in Washington’s cabinet and in the White House.
As a reference for details about Jefferson’s life.
September 28, 2010
Very good overview of Jefferson's life with abundant material from old papers and letters from Jefferson and his family as well as people like Franklin, Adams and others. Randall does a good job of offering an objective analysis of Jefferson and who he was as well as his philosophies around nature, reason, God, and humanity. But in order to do all of that the book is very LONG. Randall's writing style is good, but there is so much information, you really have to want to know about Jefferson in order to wade through all of this. Still, it is a very good look at one of the primary figures of American history.
December 31, 2012
For any history buff who wants to know how the United States was made, this is a must read. Thomas Jefferson:A Life details the life of Thomas Jefferson, from his birth in the Virginia Commonwealth, his education, his brief marriage, his children,his exploits in France, his participation in the creation of the Declaration of Independence, his interactions with men such as John Adams, James Madison, George Washington, Benjiman Franklin and others. His facination with science, exploration and agaraculture. His presidency, his later years, his letters to John Adamas and his death. An outstanding biographical treasure.
September 28, 2014
Jefferson may be one of those historical figures who defies attempts at a one-volume biography. Randall takes 500 pages to cover the first 46 years of Jefferson's life - important years, to be sure, including his drafting of the Declaration of Independence, his governorship of Virginia, and his ministry to France - and then tries to pack the remaining 37 years of Jefferson's life (including his two-term presidency!) into the last 100 pages of his narrative. Something tells me the author got too close to his deadline and panicked.
March 3, 2011
In my opinion, this book should be rated right up there with the top Thomas Jefferson Bio’s out on the market today. The author wrote the biography of Thomas Jefferson in such a way that made reading interesting and comprehensible. The book covers the span of Jefferson’s life and pays close attention to Jefferson’s contributions to the founding of our country during his stay in Paris. If you haven’t read any books on Jefferson I would eagerly recommend this book by Mr. Randall.
Read
July 29, 2016I thought that my time spent reading Jefferson was well worth it. I had to place the book down many times as I found the long, boring pages about his time in Pairs flirting with women hard to get through. All in all I felt that it was highly informative but left with the feeling that Jefferson was a spoiled, out of touch with reality, letter writing bully. He made several major contributions to our amazing country however as a person I feel he fell short in many areas.
April 24, 2010
Very insightful. I feel like I've forgotten a lot of the history I learned in high school and this taught me a lot about not only Jefferson, but also the Revolution, the beginning of politics in this nation, and what the world was like at that time.
February 7, 2018
This book is almost 600 pages long. If you are not into politics or history, you many not be interested in this read. Excellent book. Great information. Much of it had to do with his early years in politics.
December 7, 2017
For a 600 book to only spend about 30 pages on his presidency was a bit disappointing. He is also very much an apologist of Jefferson and falls short of being a critical study. Jefferson is an important figure in US history, but a tremendously difficult one too.
January 9, 2009
If you're only going to read one book on Jefferson, I recommend this one.
September 22, 2019
I have become deeply interested in the American Revolution lately. Anyone, who bothers to follow my reading, will know this is not an atypical occurrence. I get super interested in a topic and read obsessively about it for a time. To better understand the Revolution, I decided to read a Thomas Jefferson bio. After reading Fawn Brodie’s Jefferson bio. Interesting as it was, Brodie’s work left me with a lot of gaps in my understanding of Jefferson’s character and actions. After reading Willard Sterne Randall’s Jefferson bio I filled some of the gaps, particularly in Jefferson’s early intellectual life), but left other gaps untouched.
Randall is a careful somewhat obsessive biographer. His prose is excellent, and he layers his text so that you get a sense of Jefferson’s early to mid-life experience on a local, national and ultimately international stage. Some readers found his focus overly detailed, but for me it provided a broader sense of the events surrounding Jefferson and how it affected his tastes.
However, no one will ever convince me this was not intended to be a two-volume work. As others have said Randall spent 493 pages getting Jefferson to Washington and federal office, only to dispatch his term of Secretary of State, two terms as President and his declining years at Monticello in less than four hundred pages. After the careful detailing of his early to midlife, the handling of the latter portion of his life feels slapshot. Another volume would have provided Randall the scope to tell the whole of Jefferson’s life.
The only other plausible explanation I can imagine is that Randall found post Paris Jefferson a bit difficult to reconcile. Those years in Washington and beyond are a time when Jefferson, as Randall notes, dismissed his early convictions and beliefs in favor of acquiring and poorly delegating power. Randall calls him a pragmatist but does little to hide his growing disdain with his subject.
Randall also is far to quick to casually dismiss uglier sides of Jefferson’s character. For example, his casual dismissal of both Jefferson’s attempt to seduce the married wife of a close friend, and the possibility now accepted of Jefferson’s decades long dynamic with Sally Hemmings.
In the first case, Randall clearly buys into Jefferson’s romanticized self-justification of pursuing love, modern readers, however, may be less comfortable with the notion of Jefferson, self-proclaimed moralist, hiding in a woman’s bedroom, trying to talk her into a romance particularly when said woman was the wife of a close friend.
Likewise, his petty attack on fellow Jefferson author Fawn Brodie, and her belief Jefferson and Hemmings engaged in a sexual relationship, feels overdone bordering on delusional. Sally Hemmings is a real issue for Randall, as he has bought wholly into the notion of Jefferson having an undying love for artist Maria Cosway. Jefferson engaging in a relationship of any sort with Hemmings, places his Cosway theories into real doubt, and he seems far to eager to dispatch Hemmings back into the slave quarters and into a sexual alliance with a dimly introduced figure. He then proceeds to ignore Sally Hemmings ongoing presence at Monticello, which is so obvious as to render his dismissal almost comedic.
Having acknowledged these significant flaws, I still think Randall’s book is a great window into the early intellectual life of Thomas Jefferson, as well as the Revolutionary period in Virginia. For a discerning reader there is much to consider and much illumination into the forces that shaped Jefferson.
Randall is a careful somewhat obsessive biographer. His prose is excellent, and he layers his text so that you get a sense of Jefferson’s early to mid-life experience on a local, national and ultimately international stage. Some readers found his focus overly detailed, but for me it provided a broader sense of the events surrounding Jefferson and how it affected his tastes.
However, no one will ever convince me this was not intended to be a two-volume work. As others have said Randall spent 493 pages getting Jefferson to Washington and federal office, only to dispatch his term of Secretary of State, two terms as President and his declining years at Monticello in less than four hundred pages. After the careful detailing of his early to midlife, the handling of the latter portion of his life feels slapshot. Another volume would have provided Randall the scope to tell the whole of Jefferson’s life.
The only other plausible explanation I can imagine is that Randall found post Paris Jefferson a bit difficult to reconcile. Those years in Washington and beyond are a time when Jefferson, as Randall notes, dismissed his early convictions and beliefs in favor of acquiring and poorly delegating power. Randall calls him a pragmatist but does little to hide his growing disdain with his subject.
Randall also is far to quick to casually dismiss uglier sides of Jefferson’s character. For example, his casual dismissal of both Jefferson’s attempt to seduce the married wife of a close friend, and the possibility now accepted of Jefferson’s decades long dynamic with Sally Hemmings.
In the first case, Randall clearly buys into Jefferson’s romanticized self-justification of pursuing love, modern readers, however, may be less comfortable with the notion of Jefferson, self-proclaimed moralist, hiding in a woman’s bedroom, trying to talk her into a romance particularly when said woman was the wife of a close friend.
Likewise, his petty attack on fellow Jefferson author Fawn Brodie, and her belief Jefferson and Hemmings engaged in a sexual relationship, feels overdone bordering on delusional. Sally Hemmings is a real issue for Randall, as he has bought wholly into the notion of Jefferson having an undying love for artist Maria Cosway. Jefferson engaging in a relationship of any sort with Hemmings, places his Cosway theories into real doubt, and he seems far to eager to dispatch Hemmings back into the slave quarters and into a sexual alliance with a dimly introduced figure. He then proceeds to ignore Sally Hemmings ongoing presence at Monticello, which is so obvious as to render his dismissal almost comedic.
Having acknowledged these significant flaws, I still think Randall’s book is a great window into the early intellectual life of Thomas Jefferson, as well as the Revolutionary period in Virginia. For a discerning reader there is much to consider and much illumination into the forces that shaped Jefferson.
January 24, 2019
Mr. Randall’s well-written Thomas Jefferson biography was published in 1993. With a few exceptions, it has held up well. The author vehemently disagrees with the argument that the slave Sally Hemings had children by our third president. He states, “(It’s) one of America’s most durable myths, unproven and unprovable, burst upon the sleazy scene of yellowing political journalism…” He takes a few pages to lay out the facts behind the so-called myth. The problem with Mr. Randall’s assertion is that DNA testing done in 1998 (five years after his Thomas Jefferson biography was published) and a review in 2000 by the Jefferson Foundation concluded a high probability that ole Tommy got it on with Sally, resulting in six of her offspring being his little darlings. While the author logically explains why Jefferson could not have possibly been bonking Hemings, the DNA results and review seem pretty solid to me. Also Mr. Randall depicts John Adams in a less than pleasant light which was more in vogue back then until David McCullough’s 2001 John Adams biography burnished his image.
Anyhow, it is a minor glitch in what is a wonderful biography. Sally Hemings only appears in a handful of pages, thus the author implying she is not worth any more attention beyond debunking a myth. The real meat and potatoes of the book is the rest of Thomas Jefferson’s life. And it was a full life indeed. The tome covers such things as his upbringing, how the American Revolution came into being, his family life, his views about religion, Britain’s attempt to capture him, his being governor of Virginia, the creation of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, his five-year stay in France, the affair with Maria Cosway, his attitude towards slavery, the French Revolution, becoming President Washington’s Secretary of State, our country’s third president, the Louisiana Purchase, the creation of the University of Virginia, his lifetime architectural project Monticello, and why he created the Jefferson Bible. It also delves into his relationships with such notables as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Aaron Burr. The backstabbing between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton gets special attention. I really should read a biography about the brilliant Hamilton to see if the dude was more than just his Machiavellian shenanigans and hound-dog trysts. Also the 1800 presidential race sure shows that nasty campaign tactics were very much baked into the American bread near the beginning of our republic’s birth. The only dry spot in the book is the author detailing Jefferson’s three-month trip between France and Italy. Those pages were a chore. I’ve read more exciting material on a toothpaste tube. The book has no illustrations or photographs.
Mr. Randall also gives a more well-rounded biography about Jefferson by describing the culture, people, and events during his lifetime. Man, the Grim Reaper sure was busy back then. The author shows him to have been a complex individual who evolved from a passionate idealist into more of a crafty pragmatist. Clearly, Jefferson was one of our country’s big brains. His accomplishments are truly breathtaking. It also shows that the guy was all too human. Overall Thomas Jefferson is a man to admire. When historians claim he is the spirit of our country, they’re not kidding.
Anyhow, it is a minor glitch in what is a wonderful biography. Sally Hemings only appears in a handful of pages, thus the author implying she is not worth any more attention beyond debunking a myth. The real meat and potatoes of the book is the rest of Thomas Jefferson’s life. And it was a full life indeed. The tome covers such things as his upbringing, how the American Revolution came into being, his family life, his views about religion, Britain’s attempt to capture him, his being governor of Virginia, the creation of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution, his five-year stay in France, the affair with Maria Cosway, his attitude towards slavery, the French Revolution, becoming President Washington’s Secretary of State, our country’s third president, the Louisiana Purchase, the creation of the University of Virginia, his lifetime architectural project Monticello, and why he created the Jefferson Bible. It also delves into his relationships with such notables as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, and Aaron Burr. The backstabbing between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton gets special attention. I really should read a biography about the brilliant Hamilton to see if the dude was more than just his Machiavellian shenanigans and hound-dog trysts. Also the 1800 presidential race sure shows that nasty campaign tactics were very much baked into the American bread near the beginning of our republic’s birth. The only dry spot in the book is the author detailing Jefferson’s three-month trip between France and Italy. Those pages were a chore. I’ve read more exciting material on a toothpaste tube. The book has no illustrations or photographs.
Mr. Randall also gives a more well-rounded biography about Jefferson by describing the culture, people, and events during his lifetime. Man, the Grim Reaper sure was busy back then. The author shows him to have been a complex individual who evolved from a passionate idealist into more of a crafty pragmatist. Clearly, Jefferson was one of our country’s big brains. His accomplishments are truly breathtaking. It also shows that the guy was all too human. Overall Thomas Jefferson is a man to admire. When historians claim he is the spirit of our country, they’re not kidding.
August 14, 2023
Overall a good biography on Thomas Jefferson, although very uneven and with many errors. The book contains errors that should not be part of a serious biography so they were disappointing and made me question many other items brought up.
Examples include:
- Page 10 - “Tom was also proud that he had learned surveying from his father and he, in turn, taught it to his nephew, Meriwether Lewis.” Page 535 - “There, an informal president wrote all his own letters and drew up his own state papers, using his private secretary, Ay Lieut. Meriwether Lewis, his cousin, more as an aide than a secretary.” Page 568 - “‘Your knowledge of the Western country, of the army and all of its interests’ was Jefferson’s reason to single out the son of an old family friend…”
- Notes in Chapt 14 related to Martha Jefferson Randolph are all credited to Martha Wayles Jefferson.
- Page 381 - quote from Benjamin Franklin - discourse on how salaries were cut for diplomats when Jefferson joined the diplomatic core. Quote Benjamin Franklin - Someone has given Congress the impression that the foreign ministers were “eating the bread of idleness” to which Franklin, his meager salary cut $2,000, replied, “that we might not eat too much, our masters have diminished our allowances.” That was a letter from Franklin to Rachael Price dated February 6, 1780. A full 4 years prior to the event of the salary reduction.
- Page 385 - talking about Lucy Jefferson’s death that occurred in early 1785, quotes letter to Betsy Blair Thompson written in January 1787
- Page 495 - “-He delayed answering Washington for two months, until only a few weeks before Washington’s inauguration. Not until February 12, 1790, did he accept Washington’s offer to become a leader of the new nation, against his own will.” George Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789.
- Page 591 - “John Hemings, a carpenter, and two of his sons, Madison and Eaton, his apprentices, who were to be freed on reaching maturity… “. John Hemings was never thought to be the fathers of Madison and Eaton.
Examples include:
- Page 10 - “Tom was also proud that he had learned surveying from his father and he, in turn, taught it to his nephew, Meriwether Lewis.” Page 535 - “There, an informal president wrote all his own letters and drew up his own state papers, using his private secretary, Ay Lieut. Meriwether Lewis, his cousin, more as an aide than a secretary.” Page 568 - “‘Your knowledge of the Western country, of the army and all of its interests’ was Jefferson’s reason to single out the son of an old family friend…”
- Notes in Chapt 14 related to Martha Jefferson Randolph are all credited to Martha Wayles Jefferson.
- Page 381 - quote from Benjamin Franklin - discourse on how salaries were cut for diplomats when Jefferson joined the diplomatic core. Quote Benjamin Franklin - Someone has given Congress the impression that the foreign ministers were “eating the bread of idleness” to which Franklin, his meager salary cut $2,000, replied, “that we might not eat too much, our masters have diminished our allowances.” That was a letter from Franklin to Rachael Price dated February 6, 1780. A full 4 years prior to the event of the salary reduction.
- Page 385 - talking about Lucy Jefferson’s death that occurred in early 1785, quotes letter to Betsy Blair Thompson written in January 1787
- Page 495 - “-He delayed answering Washington for two months, until only a few weeks before Washington’s inauguration. Not until February 12, 1790, did he accept Washington’s offer to become a leader of the new nation, against his own will.” George Washington was inaugurated on April 30, 1789.
- Page 591 - “John Hemings, a carpenter, and two of his sons, Madison and Eaton, his apprentices, who were to be freed on reaching maturity… “. John Hemings was never thought to be the fathers of Madison and Eaton.
November 11, 2013
Willard Randall's take on the life of Thomas Jefferson is worth reading. The strength of the book comes from his coverage of Jefferson's developmental years. The later part of his life is glossed over rather quickly. For example there is only one chapter covering his two-term, and rather eventful, presidency. So this book is good for what drove President Jefferson and what events contributed to his personality but not very useful when covering his presidency. That is not necessarily a bad thing when you consider that Jefferson's time as the President of United States is well covered by other historians, but it is worth noting.
One of things I learned in this book that I like about Jefferson was his resistance to adopt any one political ideology or philosophy. The book shows Jefferson referring to the adoption of a philosophy to fitting your mind in a prism that limits the way you view the world. That part really spoke to me because that is how I view things as well; I always dislike trying to label myself with any word to describe me and how I think. Randall does a good job showing where Jefferson gets his ideas and beliefs.
"It is not from the Scottish religious reformers but from English and European writers of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Age of Reason that Jefferson drew his evolving notions of government. From Bacon, the grandfather of the English Enlightenment, Jefferson had learned to use his powers of observation and question any opinion, regardless of its source. He adhered to Bacon's admonition to apply reason and learning to the functions of government to improve society. Jefferson was influenced by Newton's Principia, which held that the universe was a great clock invented, made, and set in motion by a deity, but he had adapted Newton's view to his own quest for a world of order and harmony. Like Newton, Jefferson did not believe in miracles. Jefferson's third hero from the time of boyhood studies was Locke, who had joined the empiricism of Bacon and Newton to the realm of politics. Locke's An Essay Conserving Human Understanding for the first time fed his natural optimism and gave him hope mankind could be improved by education. From Locke and Scottish adherents, Jefferson had adopted the theory of the Second Treatise of Government that legitimate authority to govern was derived from the consent of the governed, which had first been granted while mankind had still been in a `state of nature' when all human beings were by right free and equal. Locke underpinned all of Jefferson's political thought." (p.205)
There is great deal of information of Jefferson's career in the Continental Congress, his horrendous stint of Governor of Virginia, and his time abroad negotiating on America's behalf in Europe. Jefferson considered his authorship of the Declaration to be one of the finest moments of his personal career, although he did not think so at the time.
"The debate was one of the more painful ordeals of Jefferson's long political career. He sat there, beside Franklin, silent in his humiliation at the number, extent, and importance of the changes. He mostly maintained this silence for years, but what little he wrote indicates his mounting disgust at the timidity of the conservatives in Congress, their slashing deletions of at least two major clauses in Jefferson's draft declaration."
On Sally Hemings Randall could not have been more off. Although it is sometimes hard to separate fact from fiction, Randall does do a good job correcting the lies of James Callender the propagandist, and some of the unhistorical flaws of the work of Fawn M. Brodie. However he was clearly wrong about the final conclusion.
"Sally Hemings's lover was, in other words, a son of Dabney Carr and Jefferson's sister Martha. It is impossible to believe that Jefferson abandoned his love for Maria Cosway to force his affections on even the most beautiful adolescent girl." (p.477)
I bet that statement is a little embarrassing now! DNA reveled in 1998 that Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings' kids. So, on this issue, he is definitely wrong.
In America over the last seventy years there has been a great deal of debate over the Executive Branch's use of military force without the consent of the Congress. Many who feel offended by all such actions often cite the founders and the U.S. Constitution. However if one looks at what the Founders themselves did when managing the government of the Constitution, and they might find themselves coming to a far different conclusion. A good example is Jefferson's actions against the pirates.
"At the first full cabinet meeting on May 15, President Jefferson confronted his first foreign policy crisis, one he had tackled first as minister to France fifteen years earlier. Tripoli had attacked American ships in the Mediterranean. Putting into effect his long-held views on the subject, Jefferson had already assembled an American naval squadron at Norfolk that was ready to sail. An American navy sailing off Tripoli, he told his cabinet, `might lead to war.' He wanted his cabinet's opinions and approval. All five members agreed on sending the squadron but disagreed over Jefferson's authority to act while Congress was adjourned. Navy Secretary Smith and Treasury Secretary Gallatin backed Jefferson's position that the president could use military force to defend the United States, but Attorney General Lincoln argued that without a formal declaration of war by Congress, American warships could destroy North African pirates wherever they could be found." (p.549)
Thomas Jefferson: A Life is good book about a very complicated figure. James Madison once warned people who study Jefferson to be ready for a great deal of twists and turns when going through his mind. Randall acts as fairly good guide.
One of things I learned in this book that I like about Jefferson was his resistance to adopt any one political ideology or philosophy. The book shows Jefferson referring to the adoption of a philosophy to fitting your mind in a prism that limits the way you view the world. That part really spoke to me because that is how I view things as well; I always dislike trying to label myself with any word to describe me and how I think. Randall does a good job showing where Jefferson gets his ideas and beliefs.
"It is not from the Scottish religious reformers but from English and European writers of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Age of Reason that Jefferson drew his evolving notions of government. From Bacon, the grandfather of the English Enlightenment, Jefferson had learned to use his powers of observation and question any opinion, regardless of its source. He adhered to Bacon's admonition to apply reason and learning to the functions of government to improve society. Jefferson was influenced by Newton's Principia, which held that the universe was a great clock invented, made, and set in motion by a deity, but he had adapted Newton's view to his own quest for a world of order and harmony. Like Newton, Jefferson did not believe in miracles. Jefferson's third hero from the time of boyhood studies was Locke, who had joined the empiricism of Bacon and Newton to the realm of politics. Locke's An Essay Conserving Human Understanding for the first time fed his natural optimism and gave him hope mankind could be improved by education. From Locke and Scottish adherents, Jefferson had adopted the theory of the Second Treatise of Government that legitimate authority to govern was derived from the consent of the governed, which had first been granted while mankind had still been in a `state of nature' when all human beings were by right free and equal. Locke underpinned all of Jefferson's political thought." (p.205)
There is great deal of information of Jefferson's career in the Continental Congress, his horrendous stint of Governor of Virginia, and his time abroad negotiating on America's behalf in Europe. Jefferson considered his authorship of the Declaration to be one of the finest moments of his personal career, although he did not think so at the time.
"The debate was one of the more painful ordeals of Jefferson's long political career. He sat there, beside Franklin, silent in his humiliation at the number, extent, and importance of the changes. He mostly maintained this silence for years, but what little he wrote indicates his mounting disgust at the timidity of the conservatives in Congress, their slashing deletions of at least two major clauses in Jefferson's draft declaration."
On Sally Hemings Randall could not have been more off. Although it is sometimes hard to separate fact from fiction, Randall does do a good job correcting the lies of James Callender the propagandist, and some of the unhistorical flaws of the work of Fawn M. Brodie. However he was clearly wrong about the final conclusion.
"Sally Hemings's lover was, in other words, a son of Dabney Carr and Jefferson's sister Martha. It is impossible to believe that Jefferson abandoned his love for Maria Cosway to force his affections on even the most beautiful adolescent girl." (p.477)
I bet that statement is a little embarrassing now! DNA reveled in 1998 that Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings' kids. So, on this issue, he is definitely wrong.
In America over the last seventy years there has been a great deal of debate over the Executive Branch's use of military force without the consent of the Congress. Many who feel offended by all such actions often cite the founders and the U.S. Constitution. However if one looks at what the Founders themselves did when managing the government of the Constitution, and they might find themselves coming to a far different conclusion. A good example is Jefferson's actions against the pirates.
"At the first full cabinet meeting on May 15, President Jefferson confronted his first foreign policy crisis, one he had tackled first as minister to France fifteen years earlier. Tripoli had attacked American ships in the Mediterranean. Putting into effect his long-held views on the subject, Jefferson had already assembled an American naval squadron at Norfolk that was ready to sail. An American navy sailing off Tripoli, he told his cabinet, `might lead to war.' He wanted his cabinet's opinions and approval. All five members agreed on sending the squadron but disagreed over Jefferson's authority to act while Congress was adjourned. Navy Secretary Smith and Treasury Secretary Gallatin backed Jefferson's position that the president could use military force to defend the United States, but Attorney General Lincoln argued that without a formal declaration of war by Congress, American warships could destroy North African pirates wherever they could be found." (p.549)
Thomas Jefferson: A Life is good book about a very complicated figure. James Madison once warned people who study Jefferson to be ready for a great deal of twists and turns when going through his mind. Randall acts as fairly good guide.
September 2, 2019
I appreciate all of the research that Randall did, he writes clearly, and he loves his subject. But the book is too dry, too long, too detailed, and unbalanced. As others have pointed out, Randall spends too much time on Jefferson's legal career and other things and not enough time on his political career and presidency! He is also uncritical of Jefferson, and devotes too much space to quoting letters and other documents. I bought this book many years ago because I wanted to read a solid, one volume biography of Jefferson, but this book is not the book that I was looking for.
December 12, 2021
Randall's book was published in 1993, a decade before reevaluation of Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings and his stance toward slavery started to be seriously reevaluated. Jefferson comes off much better in this book than in virtually any 21st century treatment. Randell emphasizes Jefferson's intellectual development, but it is not really a character study. I found his approach to be informative and I did not think of the book as a slog, despite lengthy discussions of, for example, his period as a practicing attorney and his years in France.
January 8, 2025
This biography definitely gave me a deeper insight and appreciation of Jefferson’s life and career, particularly his roots that led to his revolutionary ideas. Uneven quality though in this biography… gives a very thorough look at Jefferson’s early life and his time in France, but the chapters on his later career as Secretary of State, vice president and president are pretty lacking and standard fare. Of particular interest to me in this book was Jefferson’s relationship to Maria cosway, a woman was very emotionally connected to despite their long distanced relationship.
April 14, 2024
Amazing person. Out of all U.S. presidents, probably only FDR can compete with Jefferson in deftness of his political pursuits and political acumen as well as independence of his mind, but even he won't match the third president in versatility of his interests, ranging from law to political philosophy to architecture and gardening, from latest technological developments to improving forms of government.
September 26, 2021
Excellent biography. As it was first published in 1993, the author is quite insistent in denying a Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemmings. DNA and time have proven this to be wrong. Otherwise, an excellent study of a fascinating person. Highly recommend it over American Sphinx by Ellis.
February 4, 2019
Very readable biography of one of my favorite founders.
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