Joseph Ellis
Joseph Ellis | |
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Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation | |
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Joseph John-Michael Ellis III (born July 18, 1943) is an American historian whose work focuses on the lives and times of the
Education
He received his
Career
Ellis entered the
Ellis served as dean of faculty at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts (1980–1990); following that, he was named by the trustees to the endowed Ford Foundation Chair in history.[8] For part of 1984, he also served as the college's acting president while president Elizabeth Topham Kennan was on leave. Ellis was suspended without pay in 2001 after falsely telling his students that he had fought in the Vietnam War; he was reappointed to the chair four years later, in 2005.[8] Ellis retired from Mount Holyoke in 2012.
Presidential biographies
Together with histories of the founding of the republic, since 1993 Ellis has written biographies about individual early presidents and, in 2010, a joint biography of John and Abigail Adams. Interested in how men shaped and were shaped by their times, he writes with a novelist's emphasis on character. Ellis is notable as a respected scholar whose work has also gained popular success; his biography of Jefferson and work on the Founding Fathers have been bestsellers, attaining sales of hundreds of thousands of copies.[3] In 2004, the critic Jonathan Yardley wrote of him: "Ellis doubtless is now the most widely read scholar of the Revolutionary period, and thus probably the most influential as well—at least among the general public..."[9]
John Adams
As a result of his research, Ellis believed that Adams was under-appreciated as president; he worked to reveal the man's contributions and character. His book, Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams, led to a revival of interest in Adams and new appreciation for his achievements.[10]
Thomas Jefferson
In his book American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson (1996), Ellis explored the character and personality of Jefferson, and his many contradictions. He emphasized how important privacy was to him, and how the president and statesman preferred to work behind the scenes in politics, through letters, meetings and discussions over dinners. Ellis noted Jefferson's success in this style.
In relation to one of the major questions about his private life, whether Jefferson had a liaison with his slave Sally Hemings, Ellis suggested that evidence was "inconclusive." His deep analysis of Jefferson's character led him to conclude that the statesman did not have the liaison.[11] Specifically, Ellis says in the appendix to American Sphinx:
Unless the trustees of the
DNA testing on Jefferson as well as some of his alleged progeny, it leaves the matter a mystery about which advocates on either side can freely speculate... This means that for those who demand an answer the only recourse is plausible conjecture, prefaced as it must be with profuse statements about the flimsy and wholly circumstantial character of the evidence. In that spirit, which we might call the spirit of responsible speculation, after five years mulling over the huge cache of evidence that does exist on the thought and character of the historical Jefferson, I have concluded that the likelihood of a liaison with Sally Hemings is remote.[12]
External videos | |
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Washington Journal interview with Ellis about DNA evidence identifying Thomas Jefferson as the father of one of Sally Hemmings's children, November 7, 1998, C-SPAN |
On November 5, 1998, Dr. Eugene Foster and his team published the results of
In interviews on
George Washington
In His Excellency: George Washington (2004), Ellis sought to penetrate myth and examine Washington during three major periods of his life. Ellis described how Washington's experiences in earlier leadership contributed to his actions and development as president. Ellis wrote that "we do not need another epic [Washington biography], but rather a fresh portrait focused tightly on Washington's character", which the critic Jonathan Yardley said he had achieved.[9]
False claims of combat service and anti-war leadership
In June 2001, the
Ellis issued a public apology in August 2001.[17] He cited rumors at Mount Holyoke campus that he had served in Vietnam but would not talk about it because of some disturbing experience as something that led him to fabricate claims of service. He said that he had felt guilty about not actually serving in Vietnam.[16] In the ensuing controversy, Mount Holyoke suspended him without pay for a year. He returned to the classroom at the end of that time.[18] However, Ellis was prohibited from again teaching his course on the 1960s, during which most of his fabrications were made.[16] In May 2005, Mount Holyoke restored his position as Ford Foundation Professor of History.[19]
Personal life
Ellis currently lives in Western Massachusetts and Vermont with his wife Ellen Wilkins Ellis, and is the father of three adult sons. [citation needed]
Publications
Books
Essays
- long listing
- "1776, the summer America was born", Salon.com, Jun 16, 2013
- "Madison’s Radical Agenda", American Heritage, Winter 2010
- "Inventing the Presidency", American Heritage, October 2004.
- "Intimate Enemies" (John Adams and Thomas Jefferson), American Heritage, September 2000.
Editorials
- "Tea party wants to take America back -- to the 18th century," Los Angeles Times, Op-Ed, October 15, 2013.
- "A promise of unpredictability: Presidential candidates pledge a lot, but history says you can ignore most of it" - Los Angeles Times (Jan 2, 2008)
- "What Would George Do?: Okay, He Never Saw a Chopper, but He Can Still Teach Us a Thing or Two." - Washington Post(Dec 23, 2007)
- "Finding a Place for 9/11 in American History" - New York Times(Jan 28, 2006)
Notes
- ^ a b "National Book Awards – 1997". National Book Foundation. Retrieved 2012-03-24.
(With acceptance speech by Ellis.) - ^ a b "History". Past winners & finalists by category. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved March 24, 2012.
- ^ a b Wood, Gordon (December 16, 2004). "His Excellency (New Republic book review)". The New Republic (carried at powells.com). Retrieved August 4, 2006.
- ^ "Dissertations by Year, 1960–1969 | Department of History". history.yale.edu. Retrieved December 28, 2021.
- ^ Ellis, Joseph John III. "The Puritan Mind in Transition: The American Samuel Johnson (1696–1772)." Ph.D. diss. Yale University Dept. of History, 1969.
- ^ It was published as Joseph J. Ellis, The New England Mind in Transition: Samuel Johnson of Connecticut, 1696-1772 (Yale Univ. Press, 1973); this was an American theologian; he was not related to the famous English writer Samuel Johnson.
- ^ a b Mehren, Elizabeth (June 19, 2001). "Top Historian Becomes Tangled in Fictions". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 22, 2019.
- ^ a b "Trustees Name Four Faculty Members to Endowed Chairs". College Street Journal. Mount Holyoke College. May 20, 2005. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
- ^ a b Yardley, Jonathan (October 28, 2004). "His Excellency, George Washington". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
- ^ Interview with Ellis on Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams Archived November 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Booknotes, September 5, 1993, accessed February 16, 2012
- ^ "Joseph Ellis: Putting History in Perspective". mountholyoke.edu. 2000. Archived from the original on March 15, 2007. Retrieved August 4, 2006.
- ^ Ellis, Joseph (1996). ""Appendix:Note on the Sally Hemings Scandal" From "American Sphinx", pp.303-307". pbs.org. Retrieved August 4, 2006.
- ^ a b "Frontline: Jefferson's Blood: The History of a Story". Retrieved August 4, 2006.
- ^ "Online Newshour: Thomas Jefferson". PBS. November 2, 1998. Archived from the original on May 2, 2006. Retrieved August 4, 2006.
It's not so much a change of heart, but this is really new evidence. And it—prior to this evidence, I think it was a very difficult case to know and circumstantial on both sides, and, in part, because I got it wrong, I think I want to step forward and say this new evidence constitutes, well, evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that Jefferson had a longstanding sexual relationship with Sally Hemings. Even though the match is only with one of the Hemings' descendants, Eston Hemings, it's inconceivable that Jefferson, who was 65 when Eston was born, would have made a one-night stand here. I think this is a longstanding relationship. When it began and what the character of the relationship is we probably can't know easily or at all. But it was, without question, an enduring one.
- ^ "Interview: Joseph Ellis", Jefferson's Blood, 2000, PBS-Frontline, Quote: "We don't know for sure when Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings started. The DNA testing that has been done was done on the Eston Hemings line. Eston was born in 1805. It does seem that Jefferson had a long-term relationship with Sally Hemings."
- ^ a b c John, Marshall (December 7, 2004). "Ellis doesn't want to revisit his own past". Seattle Post Intelligencer. Retrieved July 8, 2008.
- ^ Ellis, Joseph (August 17, 2001). "Further Statement of Joseph J. Ellis". mountholyoke.edu. Archived from the original on July 15, 2006. Retrieved August 4, 2006.
- ^ Creighton, Joanne (August 17, 2001). "A Letter to the Mount Holyoke Community". mountholyoke.edu. Archived from the original on June 21, 2006. Retrieved August 4, 2006.
- ^ "Trustees Name Four Faculty Members to Endowed Chairs". Mount Holyoke College. May 20, 2005. Archived from the original on October 11, 2012.
- ^ "2001 Pulitzer Prize Winners". pulitzer.org. 2001. Retrieved August 4, 2006.