Why read Jefferson's Empire?

Book cover of Jefferson's Empire: The Language of American Nationhood

Book description

Thomas Jefferson believed that the American revolution was a transformative moment in the history of political civilization. He hoped that his own efforts as a founding statesman and theorist would help construct a progressive and enlightened order for the new American nation that would be a model and inspiration for…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Jefferson's Empire as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Francis D. Cogliano

Author

Onuf, who held the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Chair at the University of Virginia, is the most accomplished student of Jefferson’s thought. In Jefferson’s Empire, Onuf interrogates Jefferson’s thinking about the meaning of the American Revolution. He places Jefferson’s thinking in the context of the Enlightenment showing that his vision of the American future arose from his idealized notions of nationhood and empire. Rather than see the US as the antithesis of empire, Onuf shows that Jefferson believed that Americans should craft a new form of republican empire that he believed would be a model for the rest of the world.…

From Francis' list on The best books on Thomas Jefferson from a historian's view.