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Title: Thomas Jefferson (Childhood of the Presidents) by Joseph Ferry ISBN: 1-59084-271-5 Publisher: Mason Crest Publishers Pub. Date: 01 September, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.95

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Average Customer Rating: 1.67 (6 reviews)

Rating: 1
Summary: Another Deplorable Biography on Thomas Jefferson
Comment: Here it is again! Another typically deplorable biography on Thomas Jefferson from another PC historian. What a shame that the American History "profession" has once again provided us with a biased, politically correct, and slander ridden assault on the personage of Thomas Jefferson. Joyce Appleby spends more time bashing him for his views on women, indians,and slaves that you really never see the great human being who wrote the Declaration of Independence. All the typical left-wing anti-white male PC ad hominem attacks are there. I personally would not waste another dime on a book by Appleby, but if one wants a book that once again trashes an American hero, buy this one!

Rating: 4
Summary: A balanced view
Comment: I'm dismayed at the lack of positive reviews on THOMAS JEFFERSON. Professor Appleby has presented a very balanced view of a very controversial man. She has managed to cover Jefferson in less than 160 pages, a feat in itself. I commend to readers especially Chapter 7 and the Epilogue. Here you will find a superb anaylsis of the ups and downs of Jeffersonian reputation over the years and why Jefferson remains, in spite of it all, the enduring figure he is. Jefferson bashing has been "in" for years. It's refreshing to see a balanced view of the man---a view of Jefferson with the warts on and a view of the ideas and ideals he expounded and the accomplishment he made. I grew up when Jefferson was a real hero and over the years have witnessed the slow but steady disparagement of his character, based almost soley on his position regarding slavery and on the Sally Hemmings affair. I'm glad to see a book like this, which I think should be read by students being introduced to Jefferson for the first time and read by individuals who have read extensively on him to return them to a much needed sense of balance regarding the man.

Rating: 1
Summary: Rehashed light-weight
Comment: I share the other reviewers fairly low opinion of this book but for somewhat different reasons. I came to this small volume having read John Diggins biography on John Adams from the same series. I found Diggins work to be a short but dense intellectual history of the Adams presidency and hoped for the same from Appleby.

Instead what we have is very little of anything. It is certainly not a fact oriented presentation of the events of the Jefferson presidence; while the Burr/Hamilton duel, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the 1800 election battle and other events are mentioned, there are no details. But neither is there the kind of political/philosophical discussion of the kind thatI thought Diggins carried out so well. The analysis here goes little beyond making the naked assertion that Federalists were upper class elitists who Jefferson opposed therefore is Appleby's mind Jefferson is good and isn't it just too bad that Jefferson didn't free his slaves and that he slept with Sally Hemmings. Jefferson has been criticized for much more than the conflict between the claims of the Declaration of Independence and his views on slavery but little of this can be found in Appleby's book. Similarly, there are valid reasons why several recent writers have looked on Adams with favor and while Appleby isn't bound to accept those views, there is no analysis to support her blind rejection of Adams and Federalism.

Again, my objections to the book are not the positions that it takes but rather the fact that these positions are nothing more than conventional wisdom presented without support and they are presented in what is frankly not a very well written book. I can't believe that Schlesinger was pleased with this addition to his series.