I was so disappointed with this book. From the very first pages, you could sense the author was antagonistic towards his subject; and this continued throughout the book. I cannot count the number of times Ellis alluded to Jefferson as some kind of narcissistic mental case. As a grandmother to two children with autism, I could easily have seen Jefferson as being on the spectrum! He was incredibly intelligent, and his devotion to the building of Monticello and his love for agriculture as all-encompassing could easily be explained by autism. But, Ellis doesn't cut him any slack as he criticizes him at every turn. His disdain for Jefferson's politics, even suggesting some type of plagarism on some of Jefferson's writing, indicate the writer's dislike for President Jefferson. So sad, because Ellis is a gifted writer; but I expected better treatment, not sympathetic, but just even-handed, of his subject.