National Book Award Non Fiction Winner
American Sphinx
by Joseph J. Ellis
Summary
A psychological and political portrait of Thomas Jefferson that examines the contradictions between his soaring rhetoric of liberty and his lived realities as a slaveholder, debtor, and partisan. Ellis focuses on key episodes—Paris, the presidency, retirement at Monticello—to probe how Jefferson reconciled his ideals with his evasions. The book set the tone for a wave of more skeptical Founders biographies.
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Historical Context & Significance
Ellis was praised for making Jefferson "human" again, focusing on his years at Monticello and his profound discomfort with the reality of slavery.