"Most Blessed of the Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination by Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf (review)

In "Most Blessed of the Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination, Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf unpack what they call Thomas Jefferson's "philosophy of life" (p. xxiv). The authors resist the temptation to write a biography that lingers on Jefferson's hypocrisies or triumphs, although they talk about both. Indeed, they state, "This book is designed to be neither a running critique of Jefferson's failures nor a triumphant catalog of his successes" (p. xxv). Instead, it is a biography of the mind; Gordon-Reed and Onuf are interested in where Jefferson's philosophies came from and how they fit into his conception of self and family. Namely, the authors elaborate on how Jefferson envisioned himself and other independent men in the new republic as patriots and patriarchs.

The book is divided into three sections: "Patriarch" focuses on Jefferson's ideas about home and family life; "'Traveller'" considers Jefferson outside Virginia and Monticello; and "Enthusiast" situates Jefferson's varied passions in his imagined world. Through this structure, Gordon-Reed and Onuf show the reader the relationship between many of Jefferson's most problematic philosophies, especially his seemingly contradictory views on family and race and his constantly evolving understanding of himself as a patriarch.

In Part 1, "Patriarch," the authors set out to examine Jefferson's foundational understanding of what it meant to be an independent American man. He was able to live as a patriarch only at the very end of his life, after his travels and passions had challenged many of his earlier assumptions about what being a patriarch entailed. Even in retirement, Jefferson's patriarchy was incomplete: his plantations were not profitable; he was a widower whose children's lives had not blossomed as he had hoped; and slavery both sustained his daily life and presented constant challenges to patriarchal norms.

Part 2, "'Traveller,'" considers how Jefferson's life away from Monticello shaped his thoughts about his patriarchy at home and within the nation. While he may have spent his early years in Virginia dreaming of how to reform American society, his time in France taught him to value "the pure, uncorrupted institutions of the republican New World" (p. 135). While France made him long for Monticello and an orderly, patriarchal life, it also made him cognizant of the need to mold America into a functional republic, which he envisioned as a "family writ large" (p. 183). Jefferson's vision of America, refined against the enjoyable excesses of France, was of patriotic patriarchs creating a republic of families and farms.

Part 3, "Enthusiast," examines Jefferson's love of music, his commitment to making Monticello a place for visitors, and his need for privacy and prayer. Jefferson believed that music could soften the rough edges of American patriarchs and connect them to their families; the authors cite Jefferson'stendency to send musical works to his grandchildren and his interest in cultivating his children's musical talents. Similarly, Monticello's mountaintop location gave the patriarch a view of his domain and provided the patriot with a view of the natural wonders of the new nation. Finally, Gordon-Reed and Onuf turn to religion, which Jefferson, the patriarch, attended to with a private and intellectual devotion, despite his belief that patriots should not impose religion on others, including their families.

This book is a joy to read. Gordon-Reed and Onuf have made a beautifully co-written work, which is no easy task, and they offer the reader a new way of thinking about Jefferson. The book's structure also provides scholars with an interesting way of rethinking the intellectual biographies of other prolific writers and complex individuals. Although the authors are careful to point out how...