While Ellis did a god job of exposing the conflict of actions vs. ideals of Jefferson, I found his take on them to be too apologetic. It seemed as if this was one long book of excuses on how Jefferson was able to say one thing and do another. I understand that this was not intended to be a formal biography of the day to day life and events on Jefferson but Ellis skipped huge amounts of important areas. Jefferson’s entire Vice Presidency was left out. His second term as president was mostly ignored with only brief mentions of some things. I would have liked to know Jefferson’s reasoning and thoughts when he essentially quit the Vice Presidency and secretly helped establish partisan politics. I’d like to know his motivations behind the Embargo Act and his feelings on Aaron Burr and his scandals. I concluded that these events were left out because they were too unfavorable to Jefferson. I admit that I could be wrong and that there could have been very good reasons for leaving these out but I don’t know what they could be, I did find myself highly engaged in this book. I had internal debates over Jefferson’s ideals versus what really happened then and what is happening now. If I could find someone to have actual conversations about this stuff with in my life, I’d be in heaven.Wonderful insights and analysis of one of the most enduring figures in American history. The book gets slow and tedious at times, but it’s last third are terrific. How is it that Jefferson could be a walking contradiction yet still remain relevant? The book does an outstanding job of analyzing character, scouring the historical record, mixing in speculation, and making it all tie to the present day.We know that early on he was a strong advocate, perhaps the strongest of any of our Presidents, on the separation of church and state. We know that he was a master of being indirect, that few people ever knew just what he was thinking or why, and that he worked through select spokesmen like James Madison. Surprisingly, he did not understand the pragmatism of the Constitution very well and one gets the feeling he did not particularly like it; he was Minister to France when it was drafted and ratified and Madison, who wrote the majority of the Constitution, continually corrected him throughout his life on its interpretation. By far his closest personal friend and confident, his relationship with Madison would somewhat wane later in life, while his quite stressed midlife relationship with John Adams would strengthen significantly.After reading this book, I must say it is informative, and the author’s conversions of his learned interpretations into historical facts are interesting. But, it is not the easiest read. It is very academic, lecture-like, and hard to get into. I also read the book I found here on Amazon.com called "West Point:.Thomas Jefferson" by Norman Thomas Remick, which was much easier and more interesting to read. Because all the research the author used for the book is either material that Jefferson himself read or Jefferson himself wrote, I must say I came away with a much better understanding of Jefferson than I did with the Professor Ellis book.