This week, an interview with Clay S. Jenkinson about his new book, The Language of Cottonwoods.
#1377 Naturalist in the Arena with Char Miller
#1366 American Creation with Joseph Ellis
"Understand him for his flaws as well as for his greatness."
— Joe Ellis
We welcome historian Joseph Ellis to the program this week to talk about his book American Creation. In the book, Ellis notes a series of five contributions the founding fathers made and Clay Jenkinson asks how those contributions are holding up during our time.
Robinson Crusoe
Over the past few days I have had the wonderful guilty pleasure of sitting down to read Robinson Crusoe cover to cover. I know I should have been doing other things, some of them pressing, but I just sat there and read this famous and fabulous account of a man who is shipwrecked on a small island off of Venezuela and spends 28 years there, 26 alone with a parrot and some semi-domesticated flocks of goats.
#1347 Chernow's Hamilton
"Jefferson comes off as a Machiavellian figure in this book, as not all together reliable and not always truthful in his epic fight against Hamilton."
— Clay S. Jenkinson
This week, we present another installment in the Jefferson Hour Book Club and discuss Alexander Hamilton by author Ron Chernow.
The Wealth of Nations
Farewell to Edmund Morris
#1343 Forty Books
"He's never happier than when he can recommend a course of reading to somebody else."
— Clay S. Jenkinson
President Jefferson tells us what books he might recommend to juvenile readers, and it turns out to be a fairly limited list. He does, however, recommend Don Quixote, Gulliver’s Travels and Robinson Crusoe.
#1339 Questions and Answers
"Those forty books made a difference in his life, because he grew up in a house where there were books and book culture."
— Clay S. Jenkinson
This week on The Thomas Jefferson Hour, we answer listener questions including a query from a listener in Ireland asking about Jefferson’s thoughts on the Irish rebellion and constitution, Jefferson’s involvement in providing alcohol to troops, suggestions for a Jefferson library for children, and Jefferson’s advice for Americans traveling in Europe.
#1338 Notes on the State of Virginia
"But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
— Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia
We discuss Jefferson’s only published book, Notes on the State of Virginia. Jefferson completed his first draft of the book in 1781 and first published it anonymously in Paris in 1785. It is widely considered the most important American book published before 1800.
David Copperfield
#1331 Young Washington with Peter Stark
"The French ... thought it was an assassination, a war crime, that Washington was a murderer."
— Peter Stark
We speak with Peter Stark, author of Young Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America’s Founding Father.
We discuss George Washington’s formative years and character traits, his travels into the Ohio country, and his relationship with lieutenant governor Robert Dinwiddie. We talk about how Washington’s involvement in the Battle of Jumonville Glen touched off the French and Indian War.
Steinbeck and America
Essential Reading in the National Crisis
#1319 Looking Back
#1306 Ossian
#1300 Better Arguments
"Can we talk? Can we try to argue about where we are and where we're going and use the founders as a source of wisdom that might allow us to have a safe place to meet and to talk about this with civility, but with fervor?"
— Joseph J. Ellis
Clay and David discuss how to conduct better arguments, and also speak with author Joseph Ellis to talk about his new book American Dialogue, which will be released this fall.
#1298 As Requested
"You have to wait 14 years under the naturalization law before you can become a full citizen of the United States. These were palpable violations of the Bill of Rights."
— Clay S. Jenkinson portraying Thomas Jefferson
We spend this week, as requested, responding to submitted questions and correcting some factual errors pointed out by our listeners.
