Jefferson spent much of his life “putting up and pulling down,” most notably during the forty-year construction period of Monticello. Influenced by his readings of ancient and modern architectural writings, Jefferson gleaned the best from both his reading and from his observations in Europe,...
Eleven years before composing the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson bought a Qur’an. How did this purchase influence Jefferson a nd what role did Islam play with other American Founding Fathers? Wm. Scott Harrop reviews Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders by Denise...
Thomas Jefferson, a strong advocate of reading, frequently made book recommendations to his children and grandchildren. He sent newspaper clippings along with his letters to them and his suggestions focused on poetry, history, foreign language, and moral and behavioral improvement. Today, in honor...
Slavery’s definition is also its crime – it is the ultimate denial of personhood. For decades, historians have worked to restore the humanity denied to the millions of Africans who were forcibly brought to the Americas in the holds of slave ships and then made to endure the violence and coercion of...
The Men Who Lost America: British Leadership, the American Revolution, and the Fate of Empire . New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2013. Andrew O’Shaughnessy offers a provocative account of a familiar story from a refreshingly unfamiliar angle in The Men Who Lost America: British...
Thomas Jefferson claimed, in 1818, that “in nothing have the habits of the palate more decisive influence than in our relish of wines.” His own habits had been formed over thirty years before—at the tables of Parisian philosophes and in the vineyards of Burgundy and Bordeaux. Gabriele Rausse,...
What We're Reading: Jefferson’s Shadow: The Story of His Science What author could more effectively tell the story of Thomas Jefferson and his fascination with science than Keith Thomson? Dr. Thomson is a professor emeritus of natural history at the University of Oxford, was a professor and dean at...
Details Our White House: Looking In, Looking Out , created by 108 renowned authors and illustrators and The National Children's Book and Literacy Alliance, introduction by David McCullough, Candlewick Press, 241 pages, 2008; softcover 2010. Purchase On Amazon.com Brief Description "Building on the...
Details The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series , edited by J. Jefferson Looney, sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc., Charlottesville, Virginia. Hardbound. Purchase The Papers of Thomas Jefferson: Retirement Series Brief Description This scholarly enterprise is sponsored by...
Details The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession by Andrea Wulf, Knopf, 2009, 356 pages, hardcover; Vintage Books, 2010, softcover. Purchase The Brother Gardeners Founding Gardeners Brief Description Tells the story of amateur and professional botanists, gardeners, and...
