Audiobook14 hours
Most Blessed of the Patriarchs
Written by Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf
Narrated by Karen Chilton
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
A groundbreaking work of history that explicates Thomas Jefferson's vision of himself, the American Revolution, Christianity, slavery, and race. Thomas Jefferson is still presented today as a hopelessly enigmatic figure, despite being written about more than any other Founding Father. Lauded as the most articulate voice of American freedom, even as he held people in bondage, Jefferson is variably described by current-day observers as a hypocrite, an atheist, and a simple-minded proponent of limited government. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Annette Gordon-Reed teams up with the country's leading Jefferson scholar, Peter S. Onuf, to present an absorbing and revealing character study that finally clarifies the philosophy of Thomas Jefferson. Tracing Jefferson's development and maturation from his youth to his old age, the authors explore what they call the "empire" of Jefferson's imagination-his expansive state of mind born of the intellectual influences and life experiences that led him into public life as a modern avatar of the enlightenment, who often likened himself to an ancient figure-"the most blessed of the patriarchs."
Author
Annette Gordon-Reed
Annette Gordon-Reed is Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard Law School.
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Reviews for Most Blessed of the Patriarchs
Rating: 3.571428585714286 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
28 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Mispronunciations, pseudo-academic “woke” analysis, and circular, repetitive coverage make this fairly dull. The real history contained herein is derivative of other works. Finally, the overuse of “suggests that” suggests that the authors had something in mind and cherry picked the facts to paint that picture.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolitely excellent work. Topical and in-depth. Well worth the time to read.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I’ll give it a three because the light it sheds on Jefferson’s character outweighs my dissatisfaction with it’s literary merit. The “Empire of the Imagination” of the subtitle seems to refer not only to the glorious republic that Jefferson imagined the new nation could become, but also to the self-image he cultivated, which was often at odds with reality. He extolled the virtues of home life, wherein, he thought were cultivated the spirit of fellowship and civility and moral values that would be the bedrock of the national comity. He often wrote about the central place that home played in his life. Yet he only spent a handful of years actually living in Monticello, and most of that time was in what he considered to be an illicit relationship with a slave. On that biggest question, that of slavery, he recognized its evil, yet came to an accommodation with it, thinking that he could ameliorate it with kindness, and wishfully thinking that his countrymen would quickly come to appreciate its corrosive effect on them and, thus, disavow it. He was a sensitive poet, who may have been out of place in politics, and I love him for his poetry, for his love and care for humanity, which has inspired us, but which, I suspect partly because of the excessive optimism he brought to bear on the practical matters of state, we have fallen short of.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This biography focuses on Jefferson's personal life, his home, his family, and his attitudes about them. He was progressive in many ways, a man of the Enlightenment, but his beliefs about gender, race, and religion remained constrained by his times. The impression I'm left with from this book is that Jefferson sincerely meant well and did his best.