A Good Jefferson Biography?

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I get inquiries on a regular basis regarding a good biography of Thomas Jefferson. I generally refer people to the list Kevin Gutzman compiled of Jefferson books.

One book I would stay away from is Albert Jay Nock’s Mr. Jefferson. You’d think this would be a great book. The great antistatist Nock writing on Jefferson? How great. No. No, no, no. This book is atrocious, in my opinion. There is almost nothing in it about Jefferson’s thought! Nothing on natural rights, nothing on states’ rights. The Declaration of Independence gets maybe half a page to a page, and the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, which sum up Jefferson’s view of the Union, are referred to fleetingly and not mentioned by name. A missed opportunity of epic proportions.

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  • libertyclassroomstudent

    Too late! Mr. Nock’s book on Jefferson has been on my shelf for three years (unread)

    Bought it because of his other works and influence on Chodorov-assumed it would be good.

    Any recommendations on Grover Cleveland biographies?

  • Andrew Rogers

    Kevin Gutzman’s list is very good. I’d also add “Liberty, State, Union: The Political Thought of Thomas Jefferson” by Luigi Marco Basani. It’s available in the Mises store.

    Looking forward to seeing you in Houston (my new home) in a few months.

  • http://tomwoods.com Tom Woods

    Yes, I reviewed that Bassani book somewhere. It’s very good.

  • Andrew Rogers

    Appropriately, a good new bio of Cleveland is “The Last Jeffersonian” by Ryan Walters. It’s written from a very pro-Tea Party standpoint, so (imo) it praises Cleveland for all the right things, but then breaks down in the modern application of his ideas.

  • libertyclassroomstudent

    Great thanks Andrew

  • Anonymous

    I just purchased “Jefferson” by Nock on Kindle for my next read. Does anyone know if this is better than Nock’s “Mr. Jefferson”? Or is it actually the same book given a different title? Man, I had high expectations for this one…

  • http://tomwoods.com Tom Woods

    Same book, unfortunately. But who knows. You may find something useful in it.

  • Katniss

    The “Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy” doesn’t seem too good. It came out before the DNA tests in the 90s, which only showed that Eston Hemings was fathered by a Jefferson. It did not prove it was Thomas Jefferson himself. There is evidence pointing to his brother, Randolph, being the father – and according to the reviews, Randolph isn’t even mentioned in the book.

    I do have the third book on that list, “Thomas Jefferson: Writings”. It is great and I recommend it to anyone interested in Jefferson.

  • kospe

    What do you think of “The Real Thomas Jefferson” by Andrew Allison, Cleon Skousen etc.?

  • Anonymous

    Liberty, State, & Union by Luigi Marco Bassani was fantastic in my opinion. It goes into great detail about his philosophy and refutes arguments against his ideas and dismantles misrepresentations of Mr. Jefferson’s ideas and works very well.

  • http://www.facebook.com/matt.tanous Matthew Tanous

    My impression that the flaws were mainly a result of Nock’s adherence to the economic determinism of Beard and George.

  • David Hensley

    I thought the Nock biography was great. Any libertarian should already be quite familiar with Jefferson’s political ideas, so it’s really not that important IMHO

  • Anonymous

    Any suggestions for a coolidge bio?