We The People

Thomas Jefferson: The Reader and Writer

November 10, 2022

Historians Andrew Browning, author of Schools for Statesmen: The Divergent Educations of the Constitutional FramersNancy Isenberg, author of Madison and Jefferson; and Thomas Kidd, author of Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh, explore Thomas Jefferson’s life and legacy through the lens of his own education and what he read—and how those influences shaped the American idea. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.

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This episode was produced by Melody Rowell, Tanaya Tauber, John Guerra, and Lana Ulrich and engineered by Greg Scheckler. Research was provided by SEmily Campbell, John Guerra, and Lana Ulrich.

 

Participants

Andrew Browning is the author of Schools for Statesmen: The Divergent Educations of the Constitutional Framers. He is also the author of The Panic of 1819: The First Great Depression as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals and is currently working on his third book, a study of the 1786 Annapolis Convention. Browning has held teaching positions in Washington, DC; Portland, Oregon; and Honolulu, Hawaii.

Nancy Isenberg is the T. Harry Williams Professor of history at Louisiana State University. She is the co-author with Andrew Burstein of Madison and Jefferson and The Problem of Democracy: The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality. Isenberg is also the author of White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America and Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr, among other books.

Thomas Kidd serves as research professor of church history at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books, including Who Is an Evangelical? The History of a Movement in Crisis, Benjamin Franklin: The Religious Life of a Founding Father, and George Whitefield: America’s Spiritual Founding Father. His most recent book is Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh.

Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.


Additional Resources

 

TRANSCRIPT

This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.

 

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