This Virginia History Blog reviews four titles concerning Thomas Jefferson. “The Mind of Thomas Jefferson” investigates Jefferson’s thinking in historical context. “Mr. Jefferson’s Women” accounts for the romances throughout his life. “Twilight at Monticello” describes Jefferson, his family and slaves during the last fifteen years of his life. “Thomas Jefferson’s Military Academy” looks at West Point as an extension of Jefferson’s view of education in a republic.
The Mind of Thomas Jefferson
Peter S. Onuf wrote The Mind of Thomas Jefferson in 2007. It is available from the University of Virginia Press, on Kindle and online new and used.
In this book of nineteen essays, Onuf focuses on describing Jefferson’s thought in four parts. “Jefferson and the Historians” considers efforts to make Jefferson a symbol of America as sainted or bedeviled. Jefferson often subsumed is personal opinion to the will of the majority. Another essay explores the Declaration of Independence in the context of international relations of the late eighteenth century among empires and beginning nation-states.
“Jefferson’s World” interprets Jefferson’s geopolitical context, examining the Louisiana Purchase and the expansion of the United States. Jefferson was always as much a “federalist” as he was a “republican”. In the third part, Onuf stresses Jefferson’s interest in religion and education as essentials in preserving a republic, without making him out to be either an atheist secularist or an evangelical Christian. In much of his personal beliefs, Jefferson was a private man. In the last part, “Race and Slavery”, Onuf distinguishes between Jefferson’s plan for gradual generational colonization of freed slaves and his acceptance of the majority’s racism as apart from promoting slavery. In Jefferson’s view, African Americans retained human rights and their descendants deserved freedom in an African republic.
To buy “The Mind of Thomas Jefferson” on Amazon, click here.
*Natalie S. Bober wrote Thomas Jefferson: Draftsman of a Nation in 2007. It is available from University of Virginia Press and online new and used. To buy “Thomas Jefferson: Draftsman” on Amazon, click here.
Mr. Jefferson’s Women
Jon Kukla wrote Mr. Jefferson’s Women in 2007. It is available from Vintage, on Kindle and online new and used.
This book explores Jefferson’s relationships with women, the roles of eighteenth century women as context, and Jefferson’s political attitudes towards women. It begins with Jefferson’s efforts a wooing women for marriage, investigates his marriage and relations with women before and after his wife’s death.
Kukla examines courtship rituals and social conventions, plantation household management and medical beliefs of Jefferson’s time. While Jefferson’s women intimates are depicted as strong and independent minded, Jefferson himself believed women should be deferential and subordinate in marriage, good republican wives and mothers. He rejected female educational reforms and political equality.
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Twilight at Monticello
Alan Pell Crawford wrote Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson in 2008. It is available from Random House, on Kindle and online new and used.
After an introduction surveying Jefferson’s career, Crawford examines the last seventeen years of Jefferson’s life. Three themes emerge in the book. Jefferson has advancing financial problems in retirement, his extended family is dysfunctional and declining, and lastly on slaves and slavery.
While his plantations declined in productivity, Jefferson persisted in extravagance during retirement, with construction projects, failed speculative business ventures and luxuries for himself and his granddaughters. Jefferson’s in-laws are described as mercurial or abusive. Jefferson’s slaves excepting Sally Hemings children were scattered after Jefferson’s death at the auction block to partially retire his debts.
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Thomas Jefferson’s Military Academy
Robert M.S. McDonald wrote Thomas Jefferson’s Military Academy: Founding West Point in 2004. It is available from the University of Virginia Press and online new and used.
This book is a collection of nine essays interpreting the role of West Point in the republic. While Jefferson initially opposed Hamilton’s proposal for a military academy, seven years later he appealed to the “necessary and proper” clause to initiate a reform of the existing tutorial on-the-job mentoring in the army officer corps, to initiate an institution of professionalism dedicated to republican ideals. The Federalist acquiescence in a semi-aristocratic military caste represented by the Society of the Cincinnati was to be countered by West Point appointments from the members of Congress nationwide.
The young men of the military academy were socialized for national service in an institution fostering military virtues of personal discipline and accountability and republican principles of subordination to civilian authority of elected officials.
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*Jennings L. Wagoner, Jr. wrote Jefferson and Education in 2005. It out of print but available online new and used. To buy the “Jefferson and Education” on Amazon, click here.
Additional history related to Virginia during this time period can be found at the Table of Contents of TheVirginiaHistorian website on the page for Revolution, Constitution and New Nation Era 1750-1824. Titles are organized by topics, political and economic Virginia, social history, gender, religious, African American, and Wars in Virginia 1750-1824.
General surveys of Virginia History can be found at Virginia History Surveys. Other Virginia history divided by topics and time periods can be found at the webpage Books and Reviews.
Note: Insights for these reviews include those available from articles in the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, the William and Mary Quarterly, the Journal of the Civil War Era, the Journal of Southern History and the Journal of American History.