The Jefferson Lies

In 2012, Barton's New York Times bestseller The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You've Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson was voted “the least credible history book in print” by the users of the History News Network website. A group of ten conservative Christian professors reviewed the work and reported negatively on its claims, saying that Barton misstated facts about Jefferson.

In August 2012, Christian publisher Thomas Nelson withdrew the book from publication and stopped production, announcing that they had “lost confidence in the book's details” and “learned that there were some historical details included in the book that were not adequately supported.” A senior executive said that Thomas Nelson could not stand by the book because “basic truths just were not there.”