Used. Paperback. Thomas Jefferson was a walking paradox who penned the nation's boldest ideals while managing his own masterclass in self-deception. In this National Book Award-winning biography, Joseph J. Ellis brilliantly cuts through the cherry blossoms and hero worship to examine our most enigmatic founding father without burying him. You will meet a man who wrote passionate treatises on liberty by day while navigating the deeply contradictory realities of his private life. It is a shrewd, remarkably readable portrait of a statesman who remains all things to all people, hovering over our politics like a well-read ghost.