![]() ![]() ![]() So history is not just a chronicle it has ideological contours. The determination of what to include about “a Founder” and how to interpret it not only reflects upon the legitimacy of the American experiment, but also on the continuing social and political order, given our valorizing of “the intent of the Founding Fathers.” What historians choose to focus on regarding Jefferson has important implications for our national identity, making biographies of him all the more significant. ![]() Books about Jefferson provide a great opportunity to see historiography at work. ![]() Little interests me more than the process of historiography – i.e., the study of historical writing, and the ways in which interpretations of the past change depending on the individual historian and interpretative needs of the present. Today he is considered to be an icon of individual liberty, democracy, and republicanism, hailed as the architect of the American Revolution.īut was Jefferson actually a great man or just one whose reputation was immeasurably enhanced by the need of Americans to turn their Founders into saints? Thomas Jefferson was born on Apat his family home in Shadwell in the Colony of Virginia, the third of ten children. ![]()
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