Thirty-Six More Short Essays, Plus Another, on the Probing Mind of Thomas Jefferson PDF Download

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527546586
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 163

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Book Description
This book is a companion to the author’s previous volume, Thirty-Six Short Essays on the Probing Mind of Thomas Jefferson. It provides the reader with new short essays on Jefferson thoughts on political philosophy and religion and morality. There are, in addition, 10 essays on Jeffersonian historiography, as Jefferson, it is commonly complained, is an exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, task, for any historian. The book is crafted both to entertain—the essays are brisk and lively—and to enlighten. The essays are provocative and critical, and take the reader deep within the recesses of Jefferson’s large mind, while also highlighting that Jefferson is still quite relevant today.

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527543145
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Thomas Jefferson wrote to his personal physician, Dr. Vine Utley (21 Mar. 1819) that he was wont to read something inspirational “whereupon to ruminate in the intervals of sleep.” His aim was to retire from the night with healthy thoughts to ready him for a peaceful sleep and an eventful next day. Authored by one of the world’s foremost authorities on the mind of Jefferson, this book—comprising 36 short essays on his thoughts on politics, religion and morality, and the arts and sciences, as well as perspectives on today’s Jeffersonian historiography—is to be read in a similar manner. These short essays—light, fresh, and lively, but erudite and provocative—are to be read thus by mavens of Jefferson: one or a few chapters at a time, “whereupon to ruminate.” As such, they are to be savored in the manner of the Fables of Aesop or of Seneca’s Epistles to his disciple Lucilius, although their engaging nature means the reader may find it difficult to put the book down.

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 9781527541856
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 179

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Book Description
Thomas Jefferson wrote to his personal physician, Dr. Vine Utley (21 Mar. 1819) that he was wont to read something inspirational â oewhereupon to ruminate in the intervals of sleep.â His aim was to retire from the night with healthy thoughts to ready him for a peaceful sleep and an eventful next day. Authored by one of the worldâ (TM)s foremost authorities on the mind of Jefferson, this bookâ "comprising 36 short essays on his thoughts on politics, religion and morality, and the arts and sciences, as well as perspectives on todayâ (TM)s Jeffersonian historiographyâ "is to be read in a similar manner. These short essaysâ "light, fresh, and lively, but erudite and provocativeâ "are to be read thus by mavens of Jefferson: one or a few chapters at a time, â oewhereupon to ruminate.â As such, they are to be savored in the manner of the Fables of Aesop or of Senecaâ (TM)s Epistles to his disciple Lucilius, although their engaging nature means the reader may find it difficult to put the book down.

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN: 1648896618
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Why did Jefferson write 'Notes on the State of Virginia'? There are today two common theses. The first, the Alphabet-Soup Thesis, maintains that the book is more or less a loose collection of notes in answer to the 22 queries given by French diplomat François Barbé-Marbois. Jefferson’s altering the arrangement of his answers to the questions is a matter of allowing for a smoother “narrative” for his answers, but other than that, one ought to be cautious not to read too much into his restructuring. The second, the Deconstructionist Thesis, is that meticulous deconstruction of the text reveals a latent thesis, which Jefferson, consciously or subconsciously, kept from his readers. Both views are problematic. The former cannot explain why Jefferson fell so deeply into the project, rearranged Marbois’ questions so that the book would flow smoothly from nature to culture, and continually revise his often-lengthy answers, even after the Stockdale edition in 1787. The latter suffers from the fact that Jefferson tended never to write elliptically. "Thomas Jefferson’s ‘Notes on the State of Virginia’: A Prolegomena" is an attempt to provide an alternative, “dialectical” reading to current interpretations of the book. The book, Holowchak asserts, is neither a simple omnium gatherum nor is its message accessible only through deconstruction. There is an obvious movement from nature (Gr., 'phusis') in the first seven queries to culture (Gr., 'nomos') in the remaining 16 queries, but that “movement” is not linear. Early naturalistic queries set up neatly Jefferson’s discussion of the cultural aspects of Virginia, and Jefferson’s explication of the cultural aspects of Virginia cannot be grasped without frequent returns to the naturalistic queries, hence its dialectic. Jefferson’s aim overall, sums Holowchak, is the appropriation of what nature had given for humans’ use—to perfect the social state by taming nature and putting it to use for human betterment.

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak
Publisher: Vernon Press
ISBN: 164889884X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Liberty for Jefferson was 'the' driving force of human history and a realizable state of the human organism and of a society of men. Study of history and anthropology showed that humans were moving from the barbaric independence suffered in primal hordes, which lived inefficiently on lands, to a more economical, human-friendly use of land in social settings, demanding laws for order. Those laws, historically, favored the powerful few to the detriment of the hoi polloi. As a pupil of the Enlightenment, Jefferson argued that all humans were by nature equal, and thus, deserving of as much civic liberty as a reason-oriented and sciences-loving society, a Jeffersonian republic, could guarantee them. This book, philosophical, explains how such a society was possible, given Jefferson’s conception of the nature of man, and how the realization of one such society could lead, through contagion, to a global community of such societies. There are a large number of books that cover Jefferson’s political ideology (e.g., Gordon Wood’s 'Empire of Liberty' and Adrienne Koch’s 'The Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson')—too many to limn—but none that gets at the philosophical implications of TJ’s views on liberty. This book, examining TJ as a natural scientist and philosophy, examines and situates him in the manner of other great political ideologists of his day—e.g., Hume and Kant.

Author: Peter S. Onuf
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 0813934230
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
In The Mind of Thomas Jefferson, one of the foremost historians of Jefferson and his time, Peter S. Onuf, offers a collection of essays that seeks to historicize one of our nation’s founding fathers. Challenging current attempts to appropriate Jefferson to serve all manner of contemporary political agendas, Onuf argues that historians must look at Jefferson’s language and life within the context of his own place and time. In this effort to restore Jefferson to his own world, Onuf reconnects that world to ours, providing a fresh look at the distinction between private and public aspects of his character that Jefferson himself took such pains to cultivate. Breaking through Jefferson’s alleged opacity as a person by collapsing the contemporary interpretive frameworks often used to diagnose his psychological and moral states, Onuf raises new questions about what was on Jefferson’s mind as he looked toward an uncertain future. Particularly striking is his argument that Jefferson’s character as a moralist is nowhere more evident, ironically, than in his engagement with the institution of slavery. At once reinvigorating the tension between past and present and offering a new way to view our connection to one of our nation’s founders, The Mind of Thomas Jefferson helps redefine both Jefferson and his time and American nationhood.

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476669252
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
Thomas Jefferson's writings on morality have largely been ignored. His thoughts on the subject, never developed in any formal work, are said to be unsystematic--a judgment reinforced by his shift from Stoicism (intentions are critical) to Utilitarianism (consequences are critical) later in life. Yet his writings and the moral works he recommended reveal much about his moral sense and views on good living. Jefferson valued personal moral improvement, had great respect for moral exemplars and drew inspiration from moralists, sermonizers, novelists, poets, historians and such role models as Professor William Small and his friend George Wythe.

Author: Thomas Jefferson
Publisher: Modern Library
ISBN: 0812974328
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
Were Thomas Jefferson alive to read this book, he would recognize every sentence, every elegant turn of phrase, every lofty, beautifully expressed idea. Indeed, every word in the book is his. In an astonishing feat of editing, Eric S. Petersen has culled the entirety of Thomas Jefferson’s published works to fashion thirty-four original essays on themes ranging from patriotism and liberty to hope, humility, and gratitude. The result is a lucid, inspiring distillation of the wisdom of one of America’s greatest political thinkers. From his personal motto—“Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God”—to his resounding discourse on “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson defined the essential truth of the American spirit. In the essays that Petersen has crafted from letters, speeches, and public documents, Jefferson’s unique moral philosophy and vision shine through. Among the hundreds of magnificent sentences gathered in this volume, here are Jefferson’s pronouncements on Gratitude: “I have but one system of ethics for men and for nations— to be grateful, to be faithful to all engagements and under all circumstances, to be open and generous.” Religion: “A concern purely between our God and our consciences.” America’s national character: “It is part of the American character to consider nothing as desperate; to surmount every difficulty with resolution and contrivance.” Public debt: “We shall all consider ourselves unauthorized to saddle posterity with our debts, and morally bound to pay them ourselves.” War: “I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind.” In stately measured cadences, these thirty-four essays provide timeless guidance on leading a spiritually fulfilling life. Light and Liberty is a triumphant work of supreme eloquence, as uplifting today as when Jefferson first set these immortal sentences on paper.

Author: Thomas Jefferson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 523

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Book Description
Volume 18 of the 20-book set of writings from Thomas Jefferson, this text contains miscellaneous works from and about the third president, including his Jefferson Papers and?Essay on English Prosody.

Author: Lowell B. Catlett
Publisher:
ISBN: 1412221439
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Thomas Jefferson, A Free Mind is a collection of essays about the talented third president. Thomas Jeffersons impact on the United States and world was large when he was alive over 200 years ago, but his impact today is even larger. As we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Lewis and Clark expedition, Jeffersons contribution to America becomes more evident. As America deals with terrorists in the 21st century we are reminded that Thomas Jefferson was the first president to confront with military force the Barbary pirate terrorists in the early 1800s. The twenty two essays cover not only the Corps of Discovery and the Barbary pirates, but Jeffersons impacts on architecture, law, political thinking, wine and the French revolution just to name a few. Thomas Jefferson was interested in almost everything and this book of essays traverses many of his life long pursuits. We are enriched today because of Jeffersons stubborn persistence in the belief of public education. Our university grounds are all modeled after his stunningly beautiful campus concept for his University of Virginia. Many of the rights we take for granted today are rooted in Thomas Jeffersons early arguments as a new lawyer for natural rights . The more we know of Jefferson, the more the find his fingerprints on modern day culture, style and life.