Jeffersonian Legacies

Peter is perhaps the most authorative living historian on Thomas Jefferson and, in the opinion of some, has been for several decades. We live in a world where most learned people love to quote Jefferson, usually without the least bit of genuine understanding of the real context of those quotes. I have lived sufficiently long to even see and hear Arab leaders quoting Jefferson. But, to quote Jefferson is one thing and to understand Jefferson is another. It is, as Mark Twain once remarked; "The difference between a lightning bug and a bolt of lightning!"

Compilation of various essays written by various experts about Thomas Jefferson life and his politics as well as his psyhcology.It is not a biography but you will get all from this book, his life, his times, his politics, his philosophy. One learn many interesting things about this president and some unexpected suprises.His thought about woman and slavery, liberty, politics.

I'm in editor Peter Onuf's Jefferson class at the Univeristy of Virginia and this book is on the required reading list for the class. This book is an outstanding collection of essays on Jefferson the man, the forces that motivated him, and the development of the American nation during his lifetime as affected by the man. The scholarship involved approaches the subject matter from many different perspectives giving a very diverse representation. If you want to learn a wide range of points of view on Jefferson's life, this is the ideal book.