Book contents
- Thomas Jefferson
- Cambridge Studies on the American South
- Frontispiece
- Thomas Jefferson
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Methods and Bibliography
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Lincoln and Historiography
- 3 Let Our Workshops Remain at Monticello
- 4 Life, Liberty, Property, and Peace
- 5 What is Genius? “Openness, Brilliance, and Leadership”
- 6 A Renaissance Man in the Age of the Enlightenment
- 7 Baconism and Natural Science
- 8 Anthropology and Ethnic Cleansing: White “Rubbish,” Blacks, and Indians
- 9 Education, Religion, and Social Control
- 10 Women and the Count of Monticello
- 11 Debt, Deference, and Consumption
- 12 Defining the Presidency
- Index
1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 April 2019
- Thomas Jefferson
- Cambridge Studies on the American South
- Frontispiece
- Thomas Jefferson
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Methods and Bibliography
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Lincoln and Historiography
- 3 Let Our Workshops Remain at Monticello
- 4 Life, Liberty, Property, and Peace
- 5 What is Genius? “Openness, Brilliance, and Leadership”
- 6 A Renaissance Man in the Age of the Enlightenment
- 7 Baconism and Natural Science
- 8 Anthropology and Ethnic Cleansing: White “Rubbish,” Blacks, and Indians
- 9 Education, Religion, and Social Control
- 10 Women and the Count of Monticello
- 11 Debt, Deference, and Consumption
- 12 Defining the Presidency
- Index
Summary
“Mr. Jefferson tells large stories,” wrote John Quincy Adams, commenting on Thomas Jefferson’s boast that he learned Spanish in nineteen days. Adams, who was a splendid linguist in his own right, commented, with a touch of ambiguity, “You can never be an hour in this man’s company without something of the marvelous.” By all accounts, Jefferson was a gifted raconteur, and dinner at his table was, in the words of Benjamin Latrobe, “an elegant mental treat.” It is said that he was a poor orator, who kept his silence in public debates, but he was pleasing and persuasive in conversation, and he knew how to tell a story to his advantage.1
In early childhood he displayed the qualities of a Tom Sawyer, according to his own family’s tradition. His grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, reports that he once tried to pull a fast one on his father, who sent him into the forest with a gun to practice self-reliance.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Thomas JeffersonA Modern Prometheus, pp. 1 - 13Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019