THOMAS JEFFERSON & THE NEW NATION
by Merrill D. Peterson
THOMAS JEFFERSON: TO THE VICE PRESIDENCY
(Volume One of Two)
ISBN 978-0-945707-30-1 $37.50
543 pages plus illustrations
"Peterson's work... has its very
considerable virtues. It covers Jefferson's entire life with remarkable
thoroughness. I think, though, that its particular merit lies in the
way the author manages to synthesize and render with clarity a number of
very complicated episodes in Jefferson's public career. Among these,
for example, is the tangled aggregate of intellectual issues and tactical
imperatives that were involved in composing the Declaration of Independence.
Another is the commercial policy upon which Jefferson operated during his
mission to France in the 1780s, together with the strain of Anglophobia that
underlay it and governed virtually every thought Jefferson had, or would
have, on the subjects of trade, banking, and debt.
Among the founders of the American nation - - the first of
the modern world to combine a colonial revolt with a democratic revolutionary
ideology - - the figure of Thomas Jefferson looms largest. He had the
longest and most profound influence upon the process through which Americans
came to national consciousness, made good their independence in the stormy
Atlantic world, and gave form to their democratic ideals. Professor
Peterson's work, while more than a biography, will take its place as the
authoritative life of Jefferson. It shows the growth of his mind in
all its complex multiplicity, relating his private life and thought to his
public role, encompassing a crowded national scene, yet always keeping the
man himself in the foreground.
