Some academics consider it good practice to accept as valid sloppy,
inconclusive data. Joseph Ellis, regarding Thomas Jefferson and his
evaluations of Annette Gordon-Reeds writings, is unacceptably sloppy to the
point of malpractice.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Henriques" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 8:57 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Annette Gordon-Reed praised by Edmund Morgan
> Edmund Morgan, Joseph Ellis, and Peter Onuf are three of America's finest
> historians. Mr. Barger, IMHO, has let his obsession with proving Jefferson
> did
> not father children by Sally Hemings make him into a poster child of how a
> strong predisposition to a certain view can keep a person from being
> objective.
>
> Peter Henriques, Professor of History, Emeritus, George Mason University
> and
> author of
> Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington.
>
>
> In a message dated 9/23/2008 5:34:53 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> We all may remember that she wrote another book in which she "twisted"
> into another meaning of an Ellen Randolph Coolidge letter to her
> husband. In that same book she also said that the DNA test DID NOT prove
> that TJ was the father of the Eston Hemings descendant. Keeping this in
> mind let's move to her present book as reviewed by a friend and frequent
> forum associate, Edmund S. Morgan and for good measure she calls upon
> another writer and self stated LIAR, as exposed by the Boston Globe,
> Professor Joseph J. Ellis, to write a blurb for her book cover. Let us
> not overlook Peter Onuf,(book cover statement: "Jefferson's
> Virginia---and Jefferson himself---will never look the same." The public
> could rightly reply: not if you had your way! These people, who are
> sponsored and supported by certain foundations, and above all
> Monticello, where many readers probably think their donations and gifts
> are used to honor Mr. Jefferson. They did remove, MEMORIAL from their
> title, who are they now memorializing? "Forget it", these and other like
> authors (one being the bearer of the news of Prof. Morgan's NYT
> article), and a few others discussed on these pages weeks earlier, use
> their classrooms and books to "badmouth" a founding father who DID NOT
> father slave children that my long research reveals. They all DO have a
> deep and resounding agenda. Mrs Gordon-Reed's book is FULL of
> misstatements and outright distortions of the truth. One example: On
> dust cover: "....Sally, who bore seven children by Jefferson over the
> course of their thirty-eight year liaison." WHY hasn't she made
> headlines when she found this to be truth....Monticello, myself and the
> world have been waiting for this factual evidence, where did you find it
> Annette under a rock on Fawn Brodie's property? The author is pulling
> out all stops to convince all readers to political correctness and
> historical revisionism. Is this the work of a responsible professional
> professor or does it fit the mold of Prof. Joseph Ellis who was relieved
> from teaching assignments for one year for lying to his students, as
> exposed in the Boston Globe? Let the reader decide!
>
> Herbert Barger
> Jefferson Family Historian
> www.tjheritage.org
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Kukla
> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 7:49 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [VA-HIST] Annette Gordon-Reed praised by Edmund Morgan
>
> Posted at History News Network, Monday, September 22, 2008 Annette
> Gordon-Reed : Edmund Morgan calls her one of the best historians of her
> generation <http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/54782.html>
>
> Source: *Marie Morgan and Edmund S. Morgan in the New York Review of
> Books
> in the course of a review of Annette Gordon-Reed's new book, The
> Hemingses
> of
> Monticello*<http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21855?utm_medium=email&utm_s
> ource=Campaign+Monitor&utm_content=91964597&utm_campaign=Joseph+Lelyveld
> +on+John+%26+Sarah%2c+Michael+Chabon+on+Obama&utm_term=Jefferson%26%2382
> 17%3bs+Concubine>(10-9-08)
>
> The Hemingses of Monticello is a brilliant book. It marks the author as
> one
> of the most astute, insightful, and forthright historians of this
> generation. Not least of Annette Gordon-Reed's achievements is her
> ability
> to bring fresh perspectives to the life of a man whose personality and
> character have been scrutinized, explained, and justified by a host of
> historians and biographers. They have struggled to illuminate, and
> sometimes
> to gloss over, the dark places in his life. Like many upright public
> figures
> who know they are pure and their enemies vile, he was capable of
> deviousness
> and treachery. He instigated the savage attacks by the anti-Federalist
> National Gazette editor Philip Freneau on John Adams, once his fast
> friend,
> and was flummoxed rather than ashamed at being caught out paying Freneau
> to
> be his mouthpiece. Such actions gave rise in Jefferson biographies to
> characterizations like "enigma" and "sphinx."
>
> The full review is at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21855?email
>
> --
> Jon Kukla
> www.JonKukla.com
>
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