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Thomas Jefferson, the Classical World, and Early America - (Jeffersonian America) by Peter S Onuf & Nicholas P Cole (Paperback)
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Highlights
- Thomas Jefferson read Latin and Greek authors throughout his life and wrote movingly about his love of the ancient texts, which he thought should be at the core of America's curriculum.
- About the Author: Peter S. Onuf is Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia.
- 328 Pages
- History, United States
- Series Name: Jeffersonian America
Description
About the Book
Rahe, Hillsdale College * Jennifer T. Roberts, City University of New York, Graduate Center * Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy, University of VirginiaBook Synopsis
Thomas Jefferson read Latin and Greek authors throughout his life and wrote movingly about his love of the ancient texts, which he thought should be at the core of America's curriculum. Yet at the same time, Jefferson warned his countrymen not to look to the ancient world for modern lessons and deplored many of the ways his peers used classical authors to address contemporary questions. As a result, the contribution of the ancient world to the thought of America's most classically educated Founding Father remains difficult to assess.
This volume brings together historians of political thought with classicists and historians of art and culture to find new approaches to the difficult questions raised by America's classical heritage. The essays explore the classical contribution to different aspects of Jefferson's thought and taste, as well as examining the significance of the ancient world to America in a broader historical context. The diverse interests and methodologies of the contributors suggest new ways of approaching one of the most prominent and contested of the traditions that helped create America's revolutionary republicanism.
Contributors: Gordon S. Wood, Brown University * Peter S. Onuf, University of Virginia * Michael P. Zuckert, University of Notre Dame * Caroline Winterer, Stanford University * Richard Guy Wilson, University of Virginia * Maurie D. McInnis, University of Virginia * Nicholas P. Cole, University of Oxford * Peter Thompson, University of Oxford * Eran Shalev, Haifa University * Paul A. Rahe, Hillsdale College * Jennifer T. Roberts, City University of New York, Graduate Center * Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy, University of Virginia
Review Quotes
This is a striking collection of essays. Jefferson associated classicism with ideas of beauty and taste, and ideals of health, virtue, and contentment. Yet this volume says much more, going beyond Jefferson to address broader intellectual currents and matters of historical consciousness. Importantly, the contributors do not shy from questioning traditional assumptions about the centrality of classical knowledge in the political thought of early Americans. Diverse and greatly appealing.
--Andrew Burstein, Louisiana State University, author of Jefferson's Secrets: Death and Desire at MonticelloThis well-written, thoroughly researched, highly provocative collection of essays by eminent scholars makes a significant contribution to an understanding of Jefferson's classicism.
--Carl J. Richard, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, author of Greeks and Romans Bearing Gifts: How the Ancients Inspired the Founding FathersAbout the Author
Peter S. Onuf is Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia. Nicholas P. Cole is Junior Research Fellow in History at St. Peter's College, University of Oxford.