# Recommend a good, one-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 6, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473 "2011-06-06T03:41:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473/1 "2011-06-06T03:41:22Z")
I’m interested in reading a bio of Thomas Jefferson - any recommendations for a good, one-volume bio? I’m not keen on a dense academic work - good, readable history. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473/2 "2011-06-06T03:46:57Z")
How about from [the man himself?](http://www.amazon.com/Autobiography-Thomas-Jefferson/dp/1450594425/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1307331951&sr=1-5) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473/3 "2011-06-06T05:14:09Z")
Interesting - I did not know that he wrote one - thanks! However, I’m interested in the political dynamic between Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Madison, and I don’t think that ol’Tom would have been the most objective source… I’ve read “Founding Brothers”, but I’m interested in a specific focus on Jefferson. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473/4 "2011-06-06T05:35:01Z")
Try Joseph Ellis’s “American Sphinx”. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473/5 "2011-06-06T06:20:20Z")
Second Ellis. I recommend _against_ Fawn Brodie’s bestselling T.J.: An Intimate Portrait (way too obsessed with his sex life) and against Hitchens’ bio (too scant and agenda driven). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Punkyova](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@The\_Punkyova](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Punkyova)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473/6 "2011-06-06T11:31:59Z")
David McCullough’s biography of Adams started out as a dual biography of Adams and Jefferson, and still has a LOT of Jefferson in it, as well as a lot of political interaction. Fair warning, he decided to make it about Adams because the further into it he got, the less he liked Jefferson, and it shows. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473/7 "2011-06-06T13:06:58Z")
I’m just finishing up the McCullough bio, which is what made me want to try one dedicated to Jefferson. Didn’t realize that it was originally planned as duo-biography - his distaste for Jefferson certainly comes through. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473/8 "2011-06-08T14:12:55Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Try Joseph Ellis’s “American Sphinx”. Haven’t read this, but it’s generally regarded as the best TJ book in recent times. I’m not a fan of Jefferson, though, and doubt I’ll ever read it. You’ve already read his _Founding Brothers_, and that’s an excellent place to start. Incidentally, I love the fact that Michelle Obama’s official White House portrait has Jefferson, a conflicted slaveholder with an eye for the ladies, peering over her shoulder: [http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/imagecache/admin\_official\_lowres/administration-official/ao\_image/First\_Lady\_Michelle\_Obama\_Official\_Portrait\_2009\_HiRes.jpg](http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/imagecache/admin_official_lowres/administration-official/ao_image/First_Lady_Michelle_Obama_Official_Portrait_2009_HiRes.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473/9 "2011-06-08T16:37:21Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > I’m not a fan of Jefferson, though, and doubt I’ll ever read it. You’ve already read his _Founding Brothers_, and that’s an excellent place to start. I’m not really a Jefferson fan either and I enjoyed American Sphinx. Ellison is not an iconoclast, exactly, but he’s very honest about the human frailties of his subjects. I came away feeling I understood Jefferson about as well as is possible to understand a character that is so contradictory. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473/10 "2011-06-08T18:33:00Z")
Well, if anyone could do it, it would be Ellis. This might be of interest. I blast Tommy Boy in post 10: [Ranking the Presidents weeks 3: Thomas Jefferson - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=527134) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-good-one-volume-biography-of-thomas-jefferson/584473/11 "2011-06-12T04:08:46Z")
thanks, everyone. American Sphinx it is.