The Jefferson Image in the American Mind

The Jefferson Image in the American Mind
ISBN-10
0813918510
ISBN-13
9780813918518
Category
Biography & Autobiography
Pages
572
Language
English
Published
1998
Publisher
University of Virginia Press
Author
Merrill D. Peterson

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 shows how the public attitude toward Jefferson has always paralleled the political climate of the time; the complexities of the man, his thoughts, and his deeds being viewed only in fragments by later generations. He explains how the ideas of Jefferson have been distorted, defended, pilloried, or used by virtually every leading politician, historian, and intellectual. Through most of our history, political parties have engaged in an ideological tug-of-war to see who would wear "the mantle of Jefferson."

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