What do you think?
Rate this book
Diagnosing Jefferson: Evidence of a Condition That Guided His Beliefs, Behavior, and Personal Associations, Soft cover/Paperback
Historians have long remarked on Thomas Jefferson's "peculiarities." But it took author Norm Ledgin, whose son has Asperger's Syndrome, to see what others did not. In this intriguing book, Ledgin carefully constructs a convincing case for the likelihood that Thomas Jefferson had Asperger's Syndrome. He matches Jefferson's behaviors with five diagnostic criteria for Asperger' social impairment, preoccupation with "special interests," impairment in nonverbal communication, lack of emotional reciprocity, and inflexible adherence to nonfunctional routines. He also addresses other well-known signs of Asperger's, such as failure to recognize social cues, need for calming pressure, and indifference to peer pressure. A fascinating read!
257 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2000
5 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
About the author
Norm Ledgin
13 books6 followersNoted author-historian Norman M. Ledgin, 90, of Stanley, KS, passed away peacefully at home Tuesday, June 18, 2019, after a fierce, two-year battle with degenerative lung disease. A member of the Kansas City Writers Group since its inception, he continued to critique colleagues’ submissions until five days before his death.
Born in Passaic, NJ July 15, 1928, Norm received a bachelor of letters degree in journalism at Rutgers University in 1950 and a master of arts in political science there in 1952. While at Rutgers, where he was inducted into the prestigious Cap and Skull Society, he made waves with his peace and civil rights activism, regardless of blacklisting consequences he was to suffer later in the early 1950s. He is listed on page 119 of the U.S. House of Representatives Report No. 378, 82nd Congress, First Session, April 1, 1951, which condemned a “Peace Offensive” by a few hundred “distinguished patriots with whom I’m proud to be forever listed as opposing manufacture, storage, and use of nuclear weapons, either by the U.S. or U.S.S.R.,” as he stated on his most recent Web page. Within those pages, he was one of 350 Stockholm Peace Appeal sponsors condemned by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Other actions that drew negative attention by Rutgers administration, but served his quest to end discriminatory practices at his alma mater, included his 1949 joining of Omega Psi Phi, a predominantly African-American social fraternity. At the time, Ledgin was on staff of The Targum, the campus newspaper he later served as editor-in-chief. During his tenure, he was the last person at Rutgers to interview Paul Robeson, its most distinguished alumnus, after his final concert appearance there prior to Rutgers banishing Robey for his views. Norm later participated in civil rights actions alongside Paul Robeson, Jr.
After he served minor daily and weekly newspapers in North Jersey (and was blacklisted from job access to others), Norm accepted a teaching post at McNeese State College (now University), Lake Charles, LA, in 1956. In 1957 he turned to safety work, leading accident prevention efforts in Southwest Louisiana as manager of the Calcasieu Safety Council (1957-1962), a branch of the National Safety Council. He then moved to a similar post in Kansas City, MO, where he won the National Safety Council Trustees’ award – the Flame of Life – his first year as manager. He founded Kansas City’s Municipal Court Driver Improvement School in 1966, received numerous other national awards, became the nation’s first Certified Safety Council Executive, and chaired the national Defensive Driving Program.
In 1969, at the Greater Kansas City Area Safety Council, he met, hired, and married his wife, the former Marsha Montague. Later that year, as chair of the Kansas City Youth Symphony, Norm, accompanied by Marsha, led its first European tour to London and to Kansas City’s sister city, Seville, Spain.
He resigned to return to newspaper work as editor-publisher of the Arthur (IL) Graphic-Clarion (1976-77) and was later editor-publisher of The Blue Valley Gazette, Stanley, KS, which he founded in partnership with Marsha in 1980. Shortly after their first son, Alfred, was born in 1984, Norm was diagnosed with colon cancer, which prompted his retiring from the newspaper business that year.
But Ledgin was neither one to sit on his laurels nor one to remain idle. He went on to serve on national, state, and local boards of nonprofit educational and philanthropic agencies. He chaired the Johnson County, KS Democratic Central Committee and served an elected term as clerk of historic Oxford Township, KS. Due to his interest and research, Norm lobbied successfully for local Santa Fe Trail historical markers.
Throughout his life he was an avid music enthusiast, in particular of classical. In fact, he wrote that he regretted not having pursued music professionally. Among other genres and artis
Born in Passaic, NJ July 15, 1928, Norm received a bachelor of letters degree in journalism at Rutgers University in 1950 and a master of arts in political science there in 1952. While at Rutgers, where he was inducted into the prestigious Cap and Skull Society, he made waves with his peace and civil rights activism, regardless of blacklisting consequences he was to suffer later in the early 1950s. He is listed on page 119 of the U.S. House of Representatives Report No. 378, 82nd Congress, First Session, April 1, 1951, which condemned a “Peace Offensive” by a few hundred “distinguished patriots with whom I’m proud to be forever listed as opposing manufacture, storage, and use of nuclear weapons, either by the U.S. or U.S.S.R.,” as he stated on his most recent Web page. Within those pages, he was one of 350 Stockholm Peace Appeal sponsors condemned by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Other actions that drew negative attention by Rutgers administration, but served his quest to end discriminatory practices at his alma mater, included his 1949 joining of Omega Psi Phi, a predominantly African-American social fraternity. At the time, Ledgin was on staff of The Targum, the campus newspaper he later served as editor-in-chief. During his tenure, he was the last person at Rutgers to interview Paul Robeson, its most distinguished alumnus, after his final concert appearance there prior to Rutgers banishing Robey for his views. Norm later participated in civil rights actions alongside Paul Robeson, Jr.
After he served minor daily and weekly newspapers in North Jersey (and was blacklisted from job access to others), Norm accepted a teaching post at McNeese State College (now University), Lake Charles, LA, in 1956. In 1957 he turned to safety work, leading accident prevention efforts in Southwest Louisiana as manager of the Calcasieu Safety Council (1957-1962), a branch of the National Safety Council. He then moved to a similar post in Kansas City, MO, where he won the National Safety Council Trustees’ award – the Flame of Life – his first year as manager. He founded Kansas City’s Municipal Court Driver Improvement School in 1966, received numerous other national awards, became the nation’s first Certified Safety Council Executive, and chaired the national Defensive Driving Program.
In 1969, at the Greater Kansas City Area Safety Council, he met, hired, and married his wife, the former Marsha Montague. Later that year, as chair of the Kansas City Youth Symphony, Norm, accompanied by Marsha, led its first European tour to London and to Kansas City’s sister city, Seville, Spain.
He resigned to return to newspaper work as editor-publisher of the Arthur (IL) Graphic-Clarion (1976-77) and was later editor-publisher of The Blue Valley Gazette, Stanley, KS, which he founded in partnership with Marsha in 1980. Shortly after their first son, Alfred, was born in 1984, Norm was diagnosed with colon cancer, which prompted his retiring from the newspaper business that year.
But Ledgin was neither one to sit on his laurels nor one to remain idle. He went on to serve on national, state, and local boards of nonprofit educational and philanthropic agencies. He chaired the Johnson County, KS Democratic Central Committee and served an elected term as clerk of historic Oxford Township, KS. Due to his interest and research, Norm lobbied successfully for local Santa Fe Trail historical markers.
Throughout his life he was an avid music enthusiast, in particular of classical. In fact, he wrote that he regretted not having pursued music professionally. Among other genres and artis
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 21, 2013
The premise of this book was intriguing to me; I have experience with ASD in my family & I have always wanted to admire TJ but could never get past the fact that his words contradicted his actions by never freeing (the majority of) his slaves. Past histories I've read left me with a distasteful impression that he was too concerned with his own material comfort.
While I can reasonably accept that TJ was on the spectrum as proved in this book, and I understand the different realities an autist can function within, I still don't see that as reason enough to explain his inaction on freeing his slaves. The explanation of his complicated family, both unacknowledged & acknowledged, however, was useful in understanding his ASD. TJ did free some of his slaves, those that were his own relations/offspring, so the ASD explanation of dual reality in insufficient- he knew slavery was wrong and still enslaved people including his relations. And he knew it was wrong, he just need collateral to keep him in the style he was accustomed.
Rather, I still see this moral failure of his- and indeed it was a moral failure- indicative of the fact that people on the spectrum are not in actuality that different than neurotypicals & are likewise capable of failure. In essence, we are all human.
Finally, as a matter of style, what could have been an engaging book was laid out like a senior thesis and read very pedantically. I struggled to keep my eyes open. At times, I also found the links to be over-speculative. Regardless, the author, in my opinion, did prove the point that Thomas Jefferson was most likely on the autism spectrum.
While I can reasonably accept that TJ was on the spectrum as proved in this book, and I understand the different realities an autist can function within, I still don't see that as reason enough to explain his inaction on freeing his slaves. The explanation of his complicated family, both unacknowledged & acknowledged, however, was useful in understanding his ASD. TJ did free some of his slaves, those that were his own relations/offspring, so the ASD explanation of dual reality in insufficient- he knew slavery was wrong and still enslaved people including his relations. And he knew it was wrong, he just need collateral to keep him in the style he was accustomed.
Rather, I still see this moral failure of his- and indeed it was a moral failure- indicative of the fact that people on the spectrum are not in actuality that different than neurotypicals & are likewise capable of failure. In essence, we are all human.
Finally, as a matter of style, what could have been an engaging book was laid out like a senior thesis and read very pedantically. I struggled to keep my eyes open. At times, I also found the links to be over-speculative. Regardless, the author, in my opinion, did prove the point that Thomas Jefferson was most likely on the autism spectrum.
March 2, 2008
An excellent series of windows into the life of Thomas Jefferson, the chapters in this book present evidence that Jefferson had autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), specifically Asperger's syndrome (AS). As someone with ASD (and with several features of AS) myself, I found the the thesis and the evidence fascinating even though there's still room, I think, for doubt about whether Jefferson really did or didn't have AS.
Read
May 31, 2022very interesting thoughtful presentation for those with autism on their world
January 20, 2023
With his quirks and his genius
Comes a modern diagnosis.
Comes a modern diagnosis.
May 9, 2025
This was a fascinating read.
I agree with Norm Ledgin's argument. This book changed how I think of Thomas Jefferson. I am actually 99.9% certain he was autistic in real life. Like even just reading about him as a person literally anywhere and in any context, it's just so obvious it's not even funny. (And the fact that Temple Grandin and Tony Attwood agreed make it even more plausible.)
However, I do have a few issues with this book.
For one, it's somewhat dated given that it is over 20 years old now. There are also some places where I disagree with the author. There are some places that get too speculative (such as what he wrote about visualization and Thomas Jefferson's "Head and Heart" letter he wrote to Maria Cosway) and there are also some minor factual errors (such as his introduction saying that Thomas Jefferson "drank too much" when in reality he only drank wine moderately and also intentionally chose varieties with lower alcohol concentration).
Now for a rather bigger issue I had with this book. In hindsight, I don't really think the topic of slavery was really handled in the best way here. Yes I would realistically expect that there were individual slave owners who were relatively better or relatively worse, but no there were no nice ones. Owning your fellow human beings as property is inherently very deeply fucked, period. Nor do I really get how whatever pseudoscientific ideas about Black people were commonplace at the time are related to autistic naivete.
I also disagree with what the author said about Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings being an autism thing. Rather, I personally believe that it was related to how devastated he was after his wife Martha Wayles Skelton died, and given that she and Sally Hemings were half-sisters, I'm pretty sure they looked similar and that this was just a grief-related thing. If Martha Wayles Skelton had lived, I'm sure the whole Sally Hemings thing would have never happened to begin with.
But regardless. To Norm Ledgin. Thank you for writing this book. I know you passed a few years ago, but I wish I could thank you for writing this book and your other book Asperger's and Self-Esteem because both of them have help me make major process in processing my internalized ableism.
Overall, I recommend this one, though read it with a somewhat critical eye given the aforementioned reasons above.
Also I lowkey wonder how Thomas Jefferson himself would react if he read this book haha.
I agree with Norm Ledgin's argument. This book changed how I think of Thomas Jefferson. I am actually 99.9% certain he was autistic in real life. Like even just reading about him as a person literally anywhere and in any context, it's just so obvious it's not even funny. (And the fact that Temple Grandin and Tony Attwood agreed make it even more plausible.)
However, I do have a few issues with this book.
For one, it's somewhat dated given that it is over 20 years old now. There are also some places where I disagree with the author. There are some places that get too speculative (such as what he wrote about visualization and Thomas Jefferson's "Head and Heart" letter he wrote to Maria Cosway) and there are also some minor factual errors (such as his introduction saying that Thomas Jefferson "drank too much" when in reality he only drank wine moderately and also intentionally chose varieties with lower alcohol concentration).
Now for a rather bigger issue I had with this book. In hindsight, I don't really think the topic of slavery was really handled in the best way here. Yes I would realistically expect that there were individual slave owners who were relatively better or relatively worse, but no there were no nice ones. Owning your fellow human beings as property is inherently very deeply fucked, period. Nor do I really get how whatever pseudoscientific ideas about Black people were commonplace at the time are related to autistic naivete.
I also disagree with what the author said about Thomas Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings being an autism thing. Rather, I personally believe that it was related to how devastated he was after his wife Martha Wayles Skelton died, and given that she and Sally Hemings were half-sisters, I'm pretty sure they looked similar and that this was just a grief-related thing. If Martha Wayles Skelton had lived, I'm sure the whole Sally Hemings thing would have never happened to begin with.
But regardless. To Norm Ledgin. Thank you for writing this book. I know you passed a few years ago, but I wish I could thank you for writing this book and your other book Asperger's and Self-Esteem because both of them have help me make major process in processing my internalized ableism.
Overall, I recommend this one, though read it with a somewhat critical eye given the aforementioned reasons above.
Also I lowkey wonder how Thomas Jefferson himself would react if he read this book haha.
August 24, 2023
First time reading the book it was a little dull and hard for me to read. I let the book sit for several months and started over and it became interesting. It has an interesting premise and I like to believe most of it. I have some things that wasn't clear in my mind. First, was Ledgin inferred that with his promise to his wife he would not marry. I feel that stating it was all autism that made him keep that commitment forever means he is so set that he couldn't change. The second point is if Jefferson decided on African-American why not someone over 18 instead of 15?
I do recommend this book for anyone interested in an alternative theory on why Jefferson acted the way he did.
I do recommend this book for anyone interested in an alternative theory on why Jefferson acted the way he did.
December 20, 2015
I thought that this book might be a tad more about Autism and it's spectrum than about Jefferson but was wrong. It was a fascinating read but almost pure speculation, Also, the author used individual sources to back up his statements at one point and then attempted to refute them at the next. I would guess a Jefferson fan would find the account fascinating, but to me it just did not deliver. Oh, and Autism or not, there is no excuse for owning human beings so that part did not really work either.
March 12, 2008
An interesting look at the president we all know and love and his challenges with social behavior. The book delves into the possibility that TJ had a high functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder, thus the reports that he rarely talked to others, avoided large social situations, and other common characteristics of autism that were tresent in his life.
July 16, 2008
This book has gotten mixed reviews from people: critics saying the book is poorly written, based on a lot of impressions/opinions and not thorough research... and then readers like myself who approached it as an interesting idea... That all the quirks Jefferson was known for may have been due to the fact that he was on the autism spectrum.
June 10, 2016
ugh, really? autism as an excuse for a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old slave? is this what we're doing now?
i thought this book would be an interesting look into the concept of historical diagnosis, but like, good lord.
i thought this book would be an interesting look into the concept of historical diagnosis, but like, good lord.
Read
July 7, 2022Thought-provoking, seems thoroughly researched…I’d say he made a valid case. The only thing that annoyed me was in first few chapters when the author would bring up a point or subject and then tell you he was going to talk about that in Chapter whatever.
Currently Reading
February 9, 2011I’ve put this one back on the shelf for awhile. I’m finding that the author is a little, shall we say “scattered”? I’ll pick it back up in the spring.
March 21, 2016
The information is fascinating--Thomas Jefferson might well have been a highly functioning autistic. The facts are of interest--the book is dull. It makes me want to find out more about Jefferson.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews