Joining our conversation this week is the award-winning author Joseph Ellis. We discuss his book First Family: Abigail and John Adams in part one of two shows as our first entry for the Thomas Jefferson Hour Book Club series.
Further Reading
- First Family: Abigail and John Adams by Joseph J. Ellis
- Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams by Joseph J. Ellis
- Founders Online: John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 15 July 1813, with Postscript from Abigail Adams to Thomas Jefferson, [ca. 15 July 1813]. "You and I, ought not to die, before We have explained ourselves to each other."
- The Thomas Jefferson Hour Book Club
Have You Looked Around, Mr. Jefferson?
The Jefferson Watch
John Adams said this was the central human impulse—this rage for distinction. Think about this in your own life. Where is your distinction from the herd—now numbering 340 million rival human beings in America alone? What do you have or do that marks you as remarkable, or perhaps unique? Somewhere in your story, says John Adams, you hang your competitive hat on that distinction.
Read this week's Jefferson Watch essay, "Have You Looked Around, Mr. Jefferson?"
What Would Jefferson Do?
“No single president is of great importance in American history.”
Tune in to your local public radio or join the 1776 Club to hear this episode of What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?
This week, Clay Jenkinson discusses Jefferson’s first inaugural address with regular guest Lindsay Chervinsky. The speech, inaudibly delivered on March 4, 1801, is regarded as one of the top five in American history.
This week, Clay Jenkinson interviews frequent guest Beau Breslin of Skidmore College about the most famous decision in Supreme Court history.
Professor Beau Breslin of Skidmore College returns to the Thomas Jefferson Hour to talk about important passages that were edited out of key American documents of the Founding Era, including the famous anti-slavery passage of the Declaration of Independence.
This week's episode of the Thomas Jefferson Hour was recorded live at Radford University in Radford, Virginia in February 2023.