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Article: The Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution, 1785-1800.(Review)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- The Historian
- Article date:
- September 22, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The Long Affair: Thomas Jefferson and the French Revolution, 1785-1800. By Conor Cruise O'Brien. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Pp. xvii, 367. $29.95.)
O'Brien hates Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson not only keeps slaves but sleeps with one. The discovery of this may have prompted his daughter's attempt to enter a convent. Jefferson, "hardly much fun" as a father, has neither any French friends nor learns French when in France (17). He can be tactless due to "psychic disturbance" (40). With his "contempt for French politics and French politicians" and his dislike of French women, his mind is not "fully engaged"; and thus his dispatches lack acuteness ...