Thomas Jefferson by R. B. Bernstein Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Thomas Jefferson
Book Review: we hold these truths to be self-evident....
Summary: 4 Stars
Good book for use as a monograph in a freshman-sophomore college history class. It would have been even better if the author had taken off his rose-colored glasses.Book Review: I Loved this Book. Very Concise and Insightful
Summary: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed this superb book. I highly recommend it as an excellent introduction to Thomas Jefferson. The book is only 198 pages of text, yet the author paints a vivid, fascinating portrait of Jefferson - especially his ideas and how those ideas shaped his life and America. This book was a joy to read.
On the cover of the book is a comment from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Gordon Wood calling this book "The best short Biography of Jefferson ever written." I agree and would add that it's simply a great book.
If you want to read an excellent, thick book on Jefferson, buy Merrill Peterson's classic "Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation." But if you want an excellent, concise book on Jefferson, buy this superb book.
Thomas Jefferson had a profound role in the America Revolution, especially his enlightened ideas. He wrote the Declaration of Independence - essentially the American creed - "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." Jefferson advocated freedom, learning, and individual rights for all, not to be infringed upon by the state. He was egalitarian.
The first chapter "A Young Gentlemen of Virginia (1743-1774)" gives the reader a fine understanding of the aristocratic, planter society Jefferson grew up in. The book succinctly details Jefferson's love of learning, his noble ideas, and how his ideas would play out his life and then into American history.
Subsequent chapters detail how Jefferson was faced with many difficult problems and how he handled them on a case-by-case basis. This method of problem solving appears to make him look contradictory, but his basic ideas always remained true.
Jefferson was mired in debt, for example. Read the book and understand the society of land owners that required debt and the economic problems that led to his getting over his head. This forced him to deal with his economic problems as a farmer certain ways. (This would have made freeing his slaves economically impossible despite the fact that he ideologically opposed and repeated fought slavery).
I just loved Bernstein's description of the nasty politics during Adams' presidency and the election of 1800 between Jefferson and Adams. I could not put the book down. Hamilton and Jefferson, the brilliant founders that they were, could be very wily.
I really enjoyed Bernstein's brief description of Jefferson's alliances and rivalries with other founders, especially Madison, Adams, and Hamilton. Jefferson was friends with Adams, then enemies, then friends late in life. They both died on the same day, July 4.
On the back cover of this book are these rave reviews:
"Bernstein's Jefferson is a brilliant success. There's nothing like it in the literature." -Peter Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History, University of Virginia.
"R.B. Bernstein has produced a fascinating, extremely intelligent examination of the life of Thomas Jefferson. With a clear eye and deft historical touch, Bernstein reminds us why studying Jefferson and his world will always remain central to understanding the development of the American character." -Annette Gordon-Reed, author of "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy."
"It is difficult to be objective about Thomas Jefferson, but this book succeeds wonderfully. Neither attacking Jefferson for his sins nor lauding him for his accomplishments, `Thomas Jefferson' does equal justice to Jefferson's political, intellectual and personal life in a concise biography that can be enjoyed by all." -Joanne B. Freeman, Professor of History at Yale University.
Of the many books I have read on the presidents (I am reading through all the great presidents and founders), "Thomas Jefferson" stood out as especially well written. It carefully packed much information into a small amount of pages, touching on all aspects of Jefferson's life and creating a living portrait. It was a joy to read and I enthusiastically recommend it as an outstanding introduction to the life and ideas of Thomas Jefferson.
Bravo!
Book Review: An Introduction
Summary: 5 Stars
A good and concise introduction to T. Jefferson as a body of study, complete with an elegant final portion directing the prospective student toward the various areas of interest. A great "stand alone" read for one seeking to understand America even unto today.Book Review: Good overview of Jefferson life but author stumbles
Summary: 4 Stars
Thomas Jefferson's long and accomplished life resists compression into a one volume treatment. Professor R. B Bernstein almost meets the challenge but not without some lapses. He misses the importance of Jefferson's design of the Virginia State Capitol as the introduction of classical architecture to public buildings. It was not Jefferson's influence that brought James Madison to accept the need for a bill of rights, but the opposition of Virginia and other states to the adoption of a Constitution that lacked such amendments. It was the loss of Saint-Domingue (Haiti) that caused Napoleon to give up his dream of a western empire, not the costs of maintaining the Louisiana Territory. Bernstein succumbs to the revisionist effort to create a persona for Sally Hemings in asserting she was given "extensive authority over running" Monticello.
There are errors of fact which should have been caught by the readers Bernstein credits in his Acknowledgments: Eston Hemings was born in 1808, not 1809; the earliest references to the Presidents House as the White House was 1812, not at the time Jefferson moved into it; Sally Hemings never went to Ohio with her sons, but died in Charlottesville.
It is disappointing to read the "proof" Bernstein, a law professor, accepts in the last chapter when he discusses whether Jefferson fathered children by Sally Hemings. Bernstein is one of the "believers" scattered throughout academia who have followed a pattern of making the test for paternity "could he have" rather than "did he." Two examples suffice. One, in his first term as president, the Federalist press accused Jefferson of fathering a son Tom with Hemings. A Woodson family had long claimed they are the descendants of this Tom. Although DNA tests destroyed this myth, Bernstein calls the family stories of other descendants of Sally Hemings "oral history" and insists they are "proof" of paternity. Two, Bernstein endorses a Monte Carlo simulation by an archeologist at Monticello on the "odds" that Jefferson was the cause of Hemings' conceptions. If this gibberish had any value Bernstein should take it to the racetrack. Recently, a professor at St. Joseph's University did a Monte Carlo simulation for the NCAA basketball tournament. In the round of sixteen, he got eight right.
In short, not the "brilliant" biography praised on the back cover, but certainly a readable and thorough one. Just skip the last chapter.
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Even though I gave his book a high passing grade, Professor Bernstein apparently suffered a great deal of angst from some of my comments. I did point out errors he didn't question, but no thanks from him on those. He asserts that some of my criticisms are not valid because I misread his meaning and that a "fair minded reviewer" would have understood. Well, that is a problem of all writers, but let's consider his arguments.
Professor Bernstein cites other books he wrote to demonstrate his understanding of the various pressures that caused James Madison to support amendments to the new Constitution. Of course, I was only commenting on this book, and his clarification doesn't change my impression that he makes Jefferson too influential in Madison's decision to support a Bill of Rights.
Even after Professor Bernstein's explanation of the meaning of the word "now" (on p. 127), I cannot read it as "later" or "today." When the event discussed is not placed in time, "now" will refer to the present. When it is used in a subordinate clause to a present time of 1801, the "now" is 1801.
Professor Bernstein argued that he can't put in everything and that is why he only devoted a few lines to Jefferson's role in the construction of the Virginia Capitol. But the importance of that role was not Jefferson "gazing" on the Maison Carr?e, it was the impact of using that classical form for a public building in America. Here (p. 65), he commits another error in using Jefferson's visit to the Maison Carr?e as the reason of the preparation of a model to be used by the builders in Richmond. This model was prepared earlier and was actually in Richmond before Jefferson's visit to N?mes.
Professor Bernstein argues that he is following the lead of other historians in his conclusion that the cost of maintaining the Louisiana Territory was the basis of Napoleon's decision to sell. I do not agree that John Kukla's A Wilderness So Immense, cited by Professor Bernstein, supports this "cost" argument. Although Napoleon did see the territory as a economic loss, this was only because of the failure of the French to reconquer Saint-Domingue ( Haiti). It had been Napoleon's plan to turn Haiti back to a slave society, resurrect the sugar trade and provide a market for goods coming from the Mississippi valley. When that failed, the sale of the Louisiana Territory became valuable to Napoleon as a means to finance his intended war with Great Britain.
Professor Bernstein is most upset with me for "dubbing" Fraser Neiman's analysis as a "Monte Carlo simulation." Neiman constructed a mathematical analysis of the "odds" that Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings children. He had to make a number of unproven assumptions, which included that all of her children had the same father, and that any other suspect had to have the same arrival and departure dates from Monticello as Jefferson. Neiman termed this methodology as a Monte Carlo simulation and used that term a half a dozen times in his paper. By accusing me of setting up a false analogy to the Neiman study, Professor Bernstein reveals that he has never read it.
Book Review: Food for thought
Summary: 5 Stars
I have nothing but glowing praise for this author of "Thomas Jefferson", R.B. Bernstein. I just wanted to say that I agree with all the reviewers who gave the book good marks. I also took one reviewer's suggestion and went on to read "West Point:Thomas Jefferson.." by Remick and found it different than the Bernstein book and other T.J. books because it is not so much ABOUT Jefferson, as is a biography, but FROM Jefferson, the moral history and philosophy being drawn from his own readings and writings. I recommend after reading Bernstein's "Thomas Jefferson" you go on to the book by Remick, if you enjoy food for thought.