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whitneyborup's review against another edition
3.0
If this guy weren't so boring I wouldn't mind that he is so racist! Just kidding...because he's really racist. Plus, his reasoning falls apart when he valorizes Native Americans and criticizes African Americans. In this scenario, whites are more like blacks than whites are like Indians! We're not native to the land either! Weirdo.
verumsolum's review against another edition
2.0
Unless one is reading this for research, it is likely not worth the effort. So much detail, much of which would be uninteresting to most 21st century readers, I would guess. A few centuries will do that to a work of non-fiction. I mostly kept reading to aid in getting to sleep.
xerxes314's review
3.0
Let's start on a positive note with my favorite zinger:
Jefferson has a lot to say about Virginia. Some of it is really interesting, like his discussion of the rivers and passes in the mountains. Some of it is dull, like his list of every Act of Parliament that impacted the borders of the state. Some of it is inspired, like his analysis of the moral corruption of slavery or comparison of fauna in the two hemispheres. I was interested in his agricultural analysis, where he thought tobacco farming would die out in favor of wheat farming; that didn't happen at all. He also thought Virginia (and Kentucky, which was part of it) would make good horse-raising country, which did happen.
Unfortunately, there's also a lot of racist rubbish. Jefferson should really know better; in fact, he does know better. He analyzes the great scholars and artists produced by white Americans, black Americans and native Americans, noting that perhaps we don't expect black Americans to be doing so well, what with the centuries of grinding oppression. But he shrugs off this better judgment in favor of familiar racism. Too bad.
In Great Britain it is said their Constitution relies on the House of Commons for honesty and the Lords for wisdom... which would be a rational reliance if honesty were to be bought with money and if wisdom were hereditary.
Jefferson has a lot to say about Virginia. Some of it is really interesting, like his discussion of the rivers and passes in the mountains. Some of it is dull, like his list of every Act of Parliament that impacted the borders of the state. Some of it is inspired, like his analysis of the moral corruption of slavery or comparison of fauna in the two hemispheres. I was interested in his agricultural analysis, where he thought tobacco farming would die out in favor of wheat farming; that didn't happen at all. He also thought Virginia (and Kentucky, which was part of it) would make good horse-raising country, which did happen.
Unfortunately, there's also a lot of racist rubbish. Jefferson should really know better; in fact, he does know better. He analyzes the great scholars and artists produced by white Americans, black Americans and native Americans, noting that perhaps we don't expect black Americans to be doing so well, what with the centuries of grinding oppression. But he shrugs off this better judgment in favor of familiar racism. Too bad.
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