Download or read book Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation written by Merrill D. Peterson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1986-09-11 with total page 1106 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive life of Jefferson in one volume, this biography relates Jefferson's private life and thought to his prominent public position and reveals the rich complexity of his development. As Peterson explores the dominant themes guiding Jefferson's career--democracy, nationality, and enlightenment--and Jefferson's powerful role in shaping America, he simultaneously tells the story of nation coming into being.

Download or read book American Sphinx written by Joseph J. Ellis and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1998-11-19 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER Following Thomas Jefferson from the drafting of the Declaration of Independence to his retirement in Monticello, Joseph J. Ellis unravels the contradictions of the Jeffersonian character. He gives us the slaveholding libertarian who was capable of decrying mescegenation while maintaing an intimate relationship with his slave, Sally Hemmings; the enemy of government power who exercisdd it audaciously as president; the visionarty who remained curiously blind to the inconsistencies in his nature. American Sphinx is a marvel of scholarship, a delight to read, and an essential gloss on the Jeffersonian legacy.

Download or read book Jefferson s Second Revolution written by Susan Dunn and published by HMH. This book was released on 2004-09-09 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “excellent” history of the tumultuous early years of American government, and a constitutional crisis sparked by the Electoral College (Booklist). In the election of 1800, Federalist incumbent John Adams, and the elitism he represented, faced Republican Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson defeated Adams but, through a quirk in Electoral College balloting, tied with his own running mate, Aaron Burr. A constitutional crisis ensued. Congress was supposed to resolve the tie, but would the Federalists hand over power peacefully to their political enemies, to Jefferson and his Republicans? For weeks on end, nothing was certain. The Federalists delayed and plotted, while Republicans threatened to take up arms. In a way no previous historian has done, Susan Dunn illuminates this watershed moment in American history. She captures its great drama, gives us fresh, finely drawn portraits of the founding fathers, and brilliantly parses the enduring significance of the crisis. The year 1800 marked the end of Federalist elitism, pointed the way to peaceful power shifts, cleared a place for states’ rights in the political landscape—and set the stage for the Civil War. “Dunn, a scholar of eighteenth-century American history, has provided a valuable reminder of an election in which the stakes were truly enormous and the political vituperation was far more poisonous than the relatively moderate attacks heard today. . . . An excellent work that effectively explains this critical contest that shaped the history of the new republic.” —Booklist “Dunn does a superb job of recounting the campaign, its cast of characters, and the election’s bizarre conclusion in Congress. That tense standoff could have plunged the country into a disastrous armed conflict, Dunn explains, but instead cemented the legitimacy of peaceful, if not smooth, transfers of power.” —Publishers Weekly “Dunn simultaneously teaches and enthralls with her eloquent, five-sensed descriptions of the people and places that shaped our democracy.” —Entertainment Weekly

Download or read book Jefferson s Second Father written by John Bailey and published by Pan. This book was released on 2013-05-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "He was my ancient master, my earliest and best friend; and to him I am indebted for first impressions which have had the most salutary influence on the course of my life." —Thomas Jefferson on George Wythe, 1806 This is the story of George Wythe, a man determined, steadfast and courageous, described by Benjamin Rush as possessing "dove-like simplicity and gentleness of manner." From his humble beginnings as a circuit lawyer in Virginia, Wythe was a prominent opponent of slavery and was instrumental in the creation of the constitution. His distinguished career saw him appointed the first professor of law in the United States. Wythe witnessed most of the great events leading to America's independence and formation as a nation and was a signatory to the Declaration of Independence. And then, in 1806, Wythe was murdered. This book tells the story of George Wythe's life, his amazing legacy, his role as second father to the fathers of the nation and offers a solution to the mystery of his bizarre and tragic death. Praise for The Lost German Slave Girl "Bailey has the gift of a novelist and a readiness to blend fact and conjecture ... What followed is a mystery, and an entirely fascinating one." - Washington Post "He has crafted a compelling tale of one woman's complex life ... and in the process he has given readers a revealing look at one of the darker periods of American history." - Miami Herald "Bailey, that rare scholar whose writing lives and breathes..." - Boston Globe "Reads like a splendid legal thriller." - Sydney Morning Herald

Download or read book Confounding Father written by Robert M. S. McDonald and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2016-08-29 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Of all the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson stood out as the most controversial and confounding. Loved and hated, revered and reviled, during his lifetime he served as a lightning rod for dispute. Few major figures in American history provoked such a polarization of public opinion. One supporter described him as the possessor of "an enlightened mind and superior wisdom; the adorer of our God; the patriot of his country; and the friend and benefactor of the whole human race." Martha Washington, however, considered Jefferson "one of the most detestable of mankind"--and she was not alone. While Jefferson’s supporters organized festivals in his honor where they praised him in speeches and songs, his detractors portrayed him as a dilettante and demagogue, double-faced and dangerously radical, an atheist and "Anti-Christ" hostile to Christianity. Characterizing his beliefs as un-American, they tarred him with the extremism of the French Revolution. Yet his allies cheered his contributions to the American Revolution, unmasking him as the now formerly anonymous author of the words that had helped to define America in the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson, meanwhile, anxiously monitored the development of his image. As president he even clipped expressions of praise and scorn from newspapers, pasting them in his personal scrapbooks. In this fascinating new book, historian Robert M. S. McDonald explores how Jefferson, a man with a manner so mild some described it as meek, emerged as such a divisive figure. Bridging the gap between high politics and popular opinion, Confounding Father exposes how Jefferson’s bifurcated image took shape both as a product of his own creation and in response to factors beyond his control. McDonald tells a gripping, sometimes poignant story of disagreements over issues and ideology as well as contested conceptions of the rules of politics. In the first fifty years of independence, Americans’ views of Jefferson revealed much about their conflicting views of the purpose and promise of America. Jeffersonian America

Download or read book Notes on the State of Virginia written by Thomas Jefferson and published by . This book was released on 1787 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Thomas Jefferson written by Dumas Malone and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dumas Malone wrote his first 15,000 word essay about Jefferson for the scholarly Dictionary of American Biography. This reprint is Malone's own revision of that essay, made after his decades of study of a remarkable American.

Download or read book Friends Divided written by Gordon S. Wood and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2017 A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2017 From the great historian of the American Revolution, New York Times-bestselling and Pulitzer-winning Gordon Wood, comes a majestic dual biography of two of America's most enduringly fascinating figures, whose partnership helped birth a nation, and whose subsequent falling out did much to fix its course. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds, or been more different in temperament. Jefferson, the optimist with enough faith in the innate goodness of his fellow man to be democracy's champion, was an aristocratic Southern slaveowner, while Adams, the overachiever from New England's rising middling classes, painfully aware he was no aristocrat, was a skeptic about popular rule and a defender of a more elitist view of government. They worked closely in the crucible of revolution, crafting the Declaration of Independence and leading, with Franklin, the diplomatic effort that brought France into the fight. But ultimately, their profound differences would lead to a fundamental crisis, in their friendship and in the nation writ large, as they became the figureheads of two entirely new forces, the first American political parties. It was a bitter breach, lasting through the presidential administrations of both men, and beyond. But late in life, something remarkable happened: these two men were nudged into reconciliation. What started as a grudging trickle of correspondence became a great flood, and a friendship was rekindled, over the course of hundreds of letters. In their final years they were the last surviving founding fathers and cherished their role in this mighty young republic as it approached the half century mark in 1826. At last, on the afternoon of July 4th, 50 years to the day after the signing of the Declaration, Adams let out a sigh and said, At least Jefferson still lives. He died soon thereafter. In fact, a few hours earlier on that same day, far to the south in his home in Monticello, Jefferson died as well. Arguably no relationship in this country's history carries as much freight as that of John Adams of Massachusetts and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Gordon Wood has more than done justice to these entwined lives and their meaning; he has written a magnificent new addition to America's collective story.

Download or read book The Jefferson Bible written by Thomas Jefferson and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-03-02 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jefferson regarded Jesus as a moral guide rather than a divinity. In his unique interpretation of the Bible, he highlights Christ's ethical teachings, discarding the scriptures' supernatural elements, to reflect the deist view of religion.

Download or read book The Presidency of Thomas Jefferson written by Forrest McDonald and published by Lawrence : University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 1976 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The aim of the American Presidency Series is to present historians and the general reading public with interesting, scholarly assessment of the various presidential administrations. These interpretive surveys are intended to cover the broad ground between biographies, specialized monographs, and journalistic accounts.

Download or read book Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings written by Annette Gordon-Reed and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 1998-03-29 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Annette Gordon-Reed's groundbreaking study was first published, rumors of Thomas Jefferson's sexual involvement with his slave Sally Hemings had circulated for two centuries. Among all aspects of Jefferson's renowned life, it was perhaps the most hotly contested topic. The publication of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings intensified this debate by identifying glaring inconsistencies in many noted scholars' evaluations of the existing evidence. In this study, Gordon-Reed assembles a fascinating and convincing argument: not that the alleged thirty-eight-year liaison necessarily took place but rather that the evidence for its taking place has been denied a fair hearing. Friends of Jefferson sought to debunk the Hemings story as early as 1800, and most subsequent historians and biographers followed suit, finding the affair unthinkable based upon their view of Jefferson's life, character, and beliefs. Gordon-Reed responds to these critics by pointing out numerous errors and prejudices in their writings, ranging from inaccurate citations, to impossible time lines, to virtual exclusions of evidence—especially evidence concerning the Hemings family. She demonstrates how these scholars may have been misguided by their own biases and may even have tailored evidence to serve and preserve their opinions of Jefferson. This updated edition of the book also includes an afterword in which the author comments on the DNA study that provided further evidence of a Jefferson and Hemings liaison. Possessing both a layperson's unfettered curiosity and a lawyer's logical mind, Annette Gordon-Reed writes with a style and compassion that are irresistible. Each chapter revolves around a key figure in the Hemings drama, and the resulting portraits are engrossing and very personal. Gordon-Reed also brings a keen intuitive sense of the psychological complexities of human relationships—relationships that, in the real world, often develop regardless of status or race. The most compelling element of all, however, is her extensive and careful research, which often allows the evidence to speak for itself. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy is the definitive look at a centuries-old question that should fascinate general readers and historians alike.

Download or read book Most Blessed of the Patriarchs Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination written by Annette Gordon-Reed and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2016-04-13 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times Bestseller Named one of the Best Books of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle Finalist for the George Washington Prize Finalist for the Library of Virginia Literary Award A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice Selection "An important book…[R]ichly rewarding. It is full of fascinating insights about Jefferson." —Gordon S. Wood, New York Review of Books Hailed by critics and embraced by readers, "Most Blessed of the Patriarchs" is one of the richest and most insightful accounts of Thomas Jefferson in a generation. Following her Pulitzer Prize–winning The Hemingses of Monticello¸ Annette Gordon-Reed has teamed with Peter S. Onuf to present a provocative and absorbing character study, "a fresh and layered analysis" (New York Times Book Review) that reveals our third president as "a dynamic, complex and oftentimes contradictory human being" (Chicago Tribune). Gordon-Reed and Onuf fundamentally challenge much of what we thought we knew, and through their painstaking research and vivid prose create a portrait of Jefferson, as he might have painted himself, one "comprised of equal parts sun and shadow" (Jane Kamensky).

Download or read book A Picture Book of Thomas Jefferson written by David A. Adler and published by Lerner Publishing Group. This book was released on 2018-01-01 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A package with simple language and detailed drawings conveys information about the life and accomplishments of Thomas Jefferson.

Download or read book Thomas Jefferson s Feast written by Frank Murphy and published by Perfection Learning. This book was released on 2003-09 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tells of Thomas Jefferson's trip to France in 1784, and all the exotic foods he learned about and then introduced to America, including ice cream, macaroni and cheese, and tomatoes. Step into Reading Step 4.

Download or read book A Summary View of the Rights of British America written by Thomas Jefferson and published by . This book was released on 1774 with total page 70 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Thomas Jefferson written by Doug West and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-04-15 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thomas Jefferson is known by most as the third president of the United States, but his legacy extends much further than that. Born to a wealthy plantation owner, Thomas was the third of nine children. When he was just fourteen, his father died, leaving him half his land, slaves, and wealth. These circumstances allowed Thomas to attend college at the age of sixteen, and later on, to study under one of the top lawyers of the time. His political history is one of great triumph and struggle. Jefferson first practiced law and served in the government as a member of the House of Burgesses, later serving as a member of the Continental Congress, where he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson left Congress in 1776 and returned to Virginia to serve in the legislature, and then as Governor of Virginia for two years. He took a brief sabbatical until 1784, when he replaced Benjamin Franklin as minister to France. In 1790, Jefferson became Secretary of State under George Washington and later served as Vice President to John Adams. Jefferson won the presidency in a heated election in 1800. His first term resulted in some notable achievements, including the purchase of the Louisiana Territory in 1803, and then his support of the Lewis and Clark expedition. In his second term, he faced difficulties in the domestic and foreign fronts and was most remembered for his effort to remain neutral in the midst of the conflict between France and Britain. In 1809, President Jefferson was succeeded by James Madison. While he lived out his final seventeen years at his Virginia plantation, Monticello, Jefferson sold his collection of books to the government. Not only did he lay the foundation for the Library of Congress, but he was also the founder of the University of Virginia. Thomas Jefferson passed away on July 4, 1826, just hours before his friend John Adams died on the same date. It was the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and Jefferson was eighty-three years old. Spend some time with this distinguished American and buy the book Thomas Jefferson - A Short Biography. 30 Minute Book Series Welcome to the ninth book in the 30-Minute Book Series. Each book in the series is fast-paced, well-written, and accurate, covering the story in as much detail as a short book allows. In less than an hour, you can read or listen to the full book. It is a perfect companion for your lunch hour, or perhaps a nice distraction on your train ride home from work. About the Author Doug West is a retired engineer, small business owner, and an experienced non-fiction writer with several books to his credit. His writing interests are general, with special expertise in science, biographies, and "How-To" topics. Doug has a Ph.D. in General Engineering from Oklahoma State University.

Download or read book Martha Jefferson Randolph Daughter of Monticello written by Cynthia A. Kierner and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2012-05-14 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the oldest and favorite daughter of Thomas Jefferson, Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836) was extremely well educated, traveled in the circles of presidents and aristocrats, and was known on two continents for her particular grace and sincerity. Yet, as mistress of a large household, she was not spared the tedium, frustration, and great sorrow that most women of her time faced. Though Patsy's name is familiar because of her famous father, Cynthia Kierner is the first historian to place Patsy at the center of her own story, taking readers into the largely ignored private spaces of the founding era. Randolph's life story reveals the privileges and limits of celebrity and shows that women were able to venture beyond their domestic roles in surprising ways. Following her mother's death, Patsy lived in Paris with her father and later served as hostess at the President's House and at Monticello. Her marriage to Thomas Mann Randolph, a member of Congress and governor of Virginia, was often troubled. She and her eleven children lived mostly at Monticello, greeting famous guests and debating issues ranging from a woman's place to slavery, religion, and democracy. And later, after her family's financial ruin, Patsy became a fixture in Washington society during Andrew Jackson's presidency. In this extraordinary biography, Kierner offers a unique look at American history from the perspective of this intelligent, tactfully assertive woman.