Reviews for Jefferson: A Great American's Life and Ideas

The average rating for Jefferson: A Great American's Life and Ideas based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-09-29 00:00:00 Sharon Liccardo An eye-rolling, white-washed (1942/abridged 1970) hagiographic partisan hackography of the ever virtuous, always correct, Saint Jefferson. For example, on returning to Monticello after having been offered the position of Washington's Secretary of State, Padover writes: "Never before had there been such jubilation as now took place when the master and his two attractive daughters arrived home. The Negroes had learned of the approach . . . and they streamed down the mountain in a frenzy of excitement. Nothing, not even the entreaties of the master, could stop the slaves from unhitching the four horses and pushing and dragging the heavy vehicle up the steep mountain to the house. And when Jefferson, himself deeply moved, stepped out of the carriage, his slaves fell upon him in an orgy of worship. 'When the door of the carriage was opened," [daughter] Martha relates, 'they received him in their arms and bore him to the house, crowding around and kissing his hands and feet--some blubbering and crying--others laughing. It seemed impossible to satisfy their anxiety to touch and kiss the very earth which bore him.' " So very objective, of course. Elsewhere the author continues, "In a slave economy the planter had little choice but to continue using slave labor or to bankrupt himself by liberating his Negroes. Freeing the slaves, however, was no solution either, for such freedom, unable to find free work in a slave world, would be certain to be exposed to beggary or starvation. Moreover, the slaves were neither morally nor technically prepared to make an independent living in a competitive world." With unassailable logic like this, it is astounding (not to mention inhumane, apparently) that slaves ever gained their freedom!

Review # 2 was written on 2019-08-09 00:00:00 Dennis Record I don't like reading history (unless it's by David McCullough or Doris Kearns Goodwin) but this was excellent. It's easy to read, even humorous in places. It fills in all the gaps grade school, high school and even college classes left.