Recklessly wielding his anachronistic values upon Thomas Jefferson, "American Sphinx" escalates into a full contact assault on one the most important and revered figures in western culture. Thomas Jefferson is no longer the successful plantation owner, but a hypocritical slave owner. Historical revisionist, Joseph J. Ellis, ostensibly enjoys championing himself as a renegade historian, unafraid to attempt to topple one the most well respected and admired of America’s founding fathers.
Jefferson is no longer humble and soft spoken, but simply’nervous and unsure of himself’. Jefferson’s tenacious pursuit of his many interests are depicted as merely self indulgent and’materialistic’. Ellis mostly appears foolish in his attempt to elicit controversy. It is disturbing that this desperate and amateurishly written book, has become as widely read has it has.
In leu of a three hundred page book, "American Sphinx" would have been more appropriately formated as a three minute segment on National Public Radio.