Book description
Since its publication in 1960, The Jefferson Image in the American Mind has become a classic of historical scholarship. In it Merrill D. Peterson charts Thomas Jefferson's influence upon American thought and imagination since his death in 1826. Peterson's focus is "not primarily with the truth or falsity of the…
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1 author picked The Jefferson Image in the American Mind as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Peterson was Peter Onuf’s predecessor as the Thomas Jefferson Chair at the University of Virginia. He was the author of two landmark studies of Jefferson—a one-volume biography, Thomas Jefferson and the New Nation, probably the best single-volume biography of Jefferson, and The Jefferson Image in the American Mind. In The Jefferson Image, Peterson traces the history of Jefferson’s reputation from his death on July 4, 1826 until Franklin Roosevelt dedicated the Jefferson Memorial on April 13, 1943. He shows that in death, as in life, Jefferson and his beliefs remained at the center of debates over…
From Francis' list on The best books on Thomas Jefferson from a historian's view.
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