American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson

American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, is a 1996 book written by Joseph Ellis, a professor of History at Mount Holyoke College. It won the 1997 National Book Award for Nonfiction.

Read more about American Sphinx: The Character Of Thomas Jefferson:  Overview, Reception, Relationship Between Jefferson and Hemings

Famous quotes containing the words american, character and/or jefferson:

    The American people abhor a vacuum.
    Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919)

    For character too is a process and an unfolding ... among our valued friends is there not someone or other who is a little too self confident and disdainful; whose distinguished mind is a little spotted with commonness; who is a little pinched here and protruberent there with native prejudices; or whose better energies are liable to lapse down the wrong channel under the influence of transient solicitations?
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    Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us.
    —Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)