Rethinking Thomas Jefferson’s Writings on Slavery and Race

Rethinking Thomas Jefferson’s Writings on Slavery and Race

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2020-01-10

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1527545199

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Revisionism has been the historical vogue for well over two decades concerning Jeffersonian scholarship. This movement has been an attempt to neutralize the avowed “hagiographical” scholarship on Jefferson by aiming to offer an all-too-human Thomas Jefferson. The regrettable result has been a depiction, iterated and reiterated uncritically by scholars, of a less-than-human Jefferson, presenting him as an inveterate hypocrite and racist. Thus, Jeffersonian scholarship, as argued here, has become an exercise in useless, fatuous repetition of the same claims that has impeded attempts by serious scholars to gain fresh insights into the mind of one of the greatest Americans. This book offers a stimulating, provocative challenge to the stale revisionist claims on Jefferson concerning his hypocrisy and racism. It will appeal to mavens of Jefferson, as well as scholars intent on moving forward with Jeffersonian scholarship. The book will also appeal to those persons who believe it is time to resituate Jefferson on his little mountain.


Jefferson’s Political Philosophy and the Metaphysics of Utopia

Jefferson’s Political Philosophy and the Metaphysics of Utopia

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2017-02-20

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 9004339426

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In Jefferson’s Political Philosophy and the Metaphysics of Utopia, M. Andrew Holowchak traces the development of Jeffersonian republicanism as a political philosophy, though it is today seldom seen as a political philosophy, by examining the documents he wrote (e.g., Declaration, First Inaugural Address, and significant letters) and key literature he read. That political philosophy, fundamentally progressive and people-first, was driven by a vision of an “empire of liberty”—a global confederation of republican nations in moral and political partnership and peaceful coexistence—and was to take root in North America. Jefferson's vision influenced his domestic and foreign policies as president and the numerous letters he wrote after his presidency, but never took root there, or anywhere. Was that due to a defect of vision—a view of humans’ capacities and goodness at odds with reality—or were historical forces at play which were antagonistic to the rooting and suckering of Jeffersonian republicanism?


Thirty-Six Short Essays on the Probing Mind of Thomas Jefferson

Thirty-Six Short Essays on the Probing Mind of Thomas Jefferson

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2019-11-08

Total Pages: 179

ISBN-13: 1527543145

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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.


The Elusive Thomas Jefferson

The Elusive Thomas Jefferson

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2017-11-20

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 1476669252

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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.


Thomas Jefferson: Moralist

Thomas Jefferson: Moralist

Author: M. Andrew Holowchak

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2017-03-22

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1476628173

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Much of the scholarship on Thomas Jefferson characterizes him as a consummate immoralist. Yet he had a keen interest in morality and most of his reading--when he was not immersed in politics--was for moral study. Jefferson once told his physician, Vine Utley, that he seldom went to sleep without first reading something morally inspiring. Some Jefferson scholars consider him at best a moral dilettante with incoherent views. Others see him as a Stoic, interested in virtue as measured by both intentions and outcomes, who in later life became an Epicurean, weighing pleasure versus ends. Drawing on a careful reading of his writings and an examination of his known readings on morality, this study argues that Jefferson developed early a consistent moral sense--Stoical in essence and focused on his own moral improvement--and maintained it throughout his life.


Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Author: Thomas S. Kidd

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0300250061

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"This is a biography of Thomas Jefferson's life and conflicted moral universe. Jefferson has received increasing historical attention since the late 1990s. Much of the focus on Jefferson has concerned topics including his relationship with his slave Sally Hemings, the "Jefferson Bible," and bitter political rivalries with Alexander Hamilton and many others. Until now, however, no biography has fully explored Jefferson's spiritual beliefs and ethical precepts, and how those ideas did (or did not) sync up with the way Jefferson actually lived. Encapsulated in Jefferson's privileged but fraught life are themes that suffuse American history itself: religious seeking, racial injustice, inspiring ideals, and squalid realities. Employing fresh research in Jefferson's vast papers, Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh shows how deeply the Christian culture of Jefferson's upbringing influenced him. It also reveals how he struggled as an adult to find an adequate replacement for the conventional Christianity of his youth, even as he became more entangled in political feuds, personal debt, and the terrible consequences of slaveowning"--


Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Author: Wilson Jeremiah Moses

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-03-28

Total Pages: 523

ISBN-13: 1108470963

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Provides a critical and controversial re-assessment of Thomas Jefferson and the Jeffersonian influence by a leading intellectual historian.


Utilitarianism in the Early American Republic

Utilitarianism in the Early American Republic

Author: James E. Crimmins

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-11-01

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 100047660X

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In Utilitarianism in the Early American Republic James E. Crimmins provides a fresh perspective on the history of antebellum American political thought. Based on a broad-ranging study of the dissemination and reception of utilitarian ideas in the areas of constitutional politics, law education, law reform, moral theory and political economy, Crimmins illustrates the complexities of the place of utilitarianism in the intellectual ferment of the times, in both its secular and religious forms, intersection with other doctrines, and practical outcomes. The pragmatic character of American political thought revealed—culminating in the postbellum rise of Pragmatism—stands in marked contrast to the conventional interpretations of intellectual history in this period. Utilitarianism in the Early American Republic will be of interest to academic specialists, and graduate and senior undergraduate students engaged in the history of political thought, moral philosophy and legal philosophy, particularly scholars with interests in utilitarianism, the trans-Atlantic transfer of ideas, the American political tradition and modern American intellectual history.