This week, Thomas Jefferson Hour creator Clay S. Jenkinson returns to the "Jefferson 101" biographical series with the second of three shows devoted to Jefferson's time in Paris from 1784 to 1789.
#1195 Jefferson 112 (Jefferson in Paris)
This week, Thomas Jefferson Hour creator Clay S. Jenkinson returns to the "Jefferson 101" biographical series with the second of three shows devoted to Jefferson's time in Paris from 1784 to 1789.
Clay Jenkinson welcomes Derek Baxter to discuss his recently published book, In Pursuit of Jefferson: Traveling through Europe with the Most Perplexing Founding Father. To write the book, Baxter spent eight years doing research and traveling to sites in Europe that Jefferson visited.
"Jefferson admits [to John] Adams, you were right and I was wrong about the French Revolution."
— Joseph J. Ellis
We welcome Clay Jenkinson back from his recent cultural tour to France, and speak with author Joseph Ellis about what Jefferson learned in France, and how it changed his outlook of the American dream.
"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.
"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.