Thomas Jefferson: Author of America by Christopher Hitchens
This Week's Show
"Hitchens Part 2"
Show 959, "Hitchens Part 2" (2-19-12)
Clay Jenkinson talks about the book
Thomas Jefferson: Author of America
by Christopher Hitchens. This week part 2 of
a 2 part discussion.
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The Thomas Jefferson Hour
Show 958, "Hitchens Part 1" (2-12-12)
Clay Jenkinson talks about the book Thomas Jefferson: Author of America by Christopher Hitchens. This week part 1 of
a 2 part discussion.
Show 957, "Letters to Madison" (2-5-12)
Clay Jenkinson discusses the letters exchanged between Jefferson and Madison while Jefferson was in France
In Show 956, "True or False" (1-29-12) Listener
Jim Vandiver sent a list of "facts" about Thomas Jefferson to the Jefferson Hour and asked if Clay Jenkinson could tell us they are true or false.
In Show 955, "Poverty and Freedom" (1-22-12), Prompted by a letter from listener Rachel Wright, President Jefferson speaks about the relationship between freedom in America and the actual freedom available to those who suffer poverty, and explains his belief that America needs to include a plan for equal opportunity and guard against a limited few controlling the wealth of nations.
Books mentioned this week:
The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy
Report of the Scholars Commission
Edited by: Robert F. Turner
Order directly from:
"In 2000, the newly formed Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society asked a group of more than a dozen senior scholars from across the country to carefully examine all of the evidence for and against the allegations that Thomas Jefferson fathered one or more children by Sally Hemings, one of his slaves, and to issue a public report. In April 2001, after a year of study, the Scholars Commission issued the most detailed report to date on the issue."
Clay will be discussing this book in a future episode. If you have read the book and have a question or comment about it, please click on "Ask a Question" and send it to us.
In Show 954, "Paris" (1-15-12), President Jefferson speaks about his time in France. Urged by his friends, Jefferson sailed to Paris on July 5, 1784, two years after his wife died in childbirth. Jefferson speaks about the depression he suffered during this time. Jefferson was accompanied by his twelve-year-old daughter Martha (Patsy) and William Short as personal secretary. Jefferson became very popular in France and benefited greatly from his time there.
Jefferson Abroad by Douglas L. Wilson
In Show 953, "Conversations 2011"(1-8-12), Presents a sampling of some of the notable conversations with President Jefferson from 2011
In Show 952, "Fifty Two Weeks" (1-1-12), Thomas Jefferson hour creator Clay S. Jenkinson reviews the shows from 2011
In Show 951, "President's Choice" (12-25-11), Jefferson picks this week's topic of conversation and speaks about happiness.
Show 950, "Liberty and Freedom" (12-18-11), Jefferson responds to a letter posted on the Jefferson Hour Forum. The letter, submitted by "Yarn", is titled What is Liberty?
Show 949, "Occupy Washington" (12-11-11), Clay Jenkinson talks about American disenchantment, the occupy movements, Jefferson and UFOs, Pennsylvania Dutch farming practices and apples trees.
Show 948, "Jefferson was Right" (12-4-11), President Thomas Jefferson shares his views on banking and finance in America
Show 947, "Jeffersonian America" (11-27-11), President Thomas Jefferson talks about his vision for America
Books mentioned this week:
Becoming Jefferson's People
by Clay S. Jenkinson
Click HERE to purchase this book
Show 946, "Humble Pie" (11-20-11), Clay Jenkinson answers listener questions about Thomas Jefferson including quires about Jefferson's completive nature, Jefferson and Karl Marx, what isn't being taught to schoolchildren that should be and an apology to a listener from Richmond, Virginia.
Books mentioned this week:
America Afire by Bernard A. Weisberger
Show 945, "Buy My Book" (11-13-11) Clay Jenkinson speaks about (and pitches) his new book The Character of Meriwether Lewis Explorer in the Wilderness.
From the Dakota Institute:
"The Character of Meriwether: Explorer in the Wilderness takes a fresh look at Meriwether Lewis, the commander of the most important exploration mission in the early history of the United States. Jenkinson’s Lewis is not a paper cutout hero, but a hyper-serious young man of great complexity, who found the wilderness of upper Louisiana as burdensome as it was exhilarating. "
To purchase Clay's new book click HERE
Also mentioned on this week's show - The Badlands Conservation Alliance.
Click HERE to visit their website
Also mentioned on this week's show - The Badlands Conservation Alliance. Click HERE to visit their website.
Show 944, "Nerburn" (11-6-11) Clay Jenkinson speaks with Kent Nerbun, the author of The Wolf at Twilight, follow up to his best selling book, Neither Wolf nor Dog.
Visit Kent's website here
To purchase autographed copies of Kent Nerburn's book click here
Show 943, "Diffuse the Population" (10-30-11), President Jefferson answers listener questions about his greenhouses, growing olives, usufruct, living in cities and his wish to see the diffusion of the American population, the importance and benefits of growing your own food and his vision of a Jeffersonian nation. Clay Jenkinson offers advice on what Jeffersonian things to see in Paris.
Books mentioned on this week's show:
The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson
by Professor William Howard Adams, William Howard Adams
Thomas Jefferson's Paris
by Howard C. Rice
Please visit the Jefferson Hour Forum to leave your comments about this weeks show.
Show 942, "Don't Call me Teddy" (10-23-11), Clay Jenkinson talks about Theodore Roosevelt and the upcoming Roosevelt symposium at Dickinson State University.
Click here to visit the DSU TR website
Show 941, Will of the People (10-16-11), President Thomas Jefferson shares his views on the Occupy Wall Street movement and civil discourse in the United States.
Show 940 Alexander Hamilton versus Thomas Jefferson (10-9-11), Clay Jenkinson presents the different views of both of these men.
Show 939, Crusoe Revisited, (10-2-11), Clay Jenkinson and Jack Russell Weinstein (host of "Why") discuss the novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719 and is one of the books found in Jefferson's library.
Show 938, Untrammeled Economy, (9-25-11), President Jefferson speaks with Adam Smith (portrayed by Jack Russell Weinstein) about why humans are sympatheic and Smith's view on the economy of nations.
Show 937, End of the Summer 2011 (9-18-11), Clay Jenkinson reflects on the summer of 2011, students heading to university, his experiences with mentoring professors and answers many listener questions about Thomas Jefferson.
Show 936 Forces of Nature (9-11-11), President Thomas Jefferson speaks about the natural world and about natural disasters in his time and ours. Mister Jefferson also responds to listener questions about re-writing the constitution and comments on his work reforming primogeniture and entail in Virginia and the concept of usufruct.
Show 935 A Modest Farm (9-4-11), President Thomas Jefferson speaks about the contrast between Alexander Hamilton's speculative vision of America and his own vision of a more physiocratic gardening based America
Show 934 The Lewis and Clark Trail (8-28-11) Clay Jenkinson reports in on his latest cultural tour on the Lewis and Clark Trail in Montana
Show 933 The Letters Part 2 (8-21-11) Clay Jenkinson continues the Adams-Jefferson Letters conversation
Letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams after learning of the death of Abigail Adams
MONTICELLO, November 13, 1818.
The public papers, my dear friend, announce the fatal event of which your letter of October the 20th had given me ominous foreboding. Tried myself in the school of affliction, by the loss of every form of connection which can rive the human heart, I know well, and feel what you have lost, what you have suffered, are suffering, and have yet to endure. The same trials have taught me that for ills so immeasurable, time and silence are the only medicine. I will not, therefore, by useless condolences, open afresh the sluices of your grief, nor, although mingling sincerely my tears with yours, will I say a word more where words are vain, but that it is of some comfort to us both, that the term is not very distant, at which we are to deposit in the same cerement, our sorrows and suffering bodies, and to ascend in essence to an ecstatic meeting with the friends we have loved and lost, and whom we shall still love and never lose again. God bless you and support you under your heavy affliction.
Show 932 The Letters Part 1 (8-14-11) Clay Jenkinson responds to a letter sent to the TJH by listener Paul T. Kirner who wrote:
My dear fellow citizen,
I have finished reading all 380 letters between yourself and President Adams from the book "The Adams-Jefferson Letters" edited by Lester J. Cappon. I wish to ask a number of questions but I hesitate to burden you, my good sir, with the time it will take you to answer.
Show 931 A Constitutional (8-7-11) President Jefferson talks about the relevancy of the Constitution in today's America.
Show 930 Major Baran (7-31-11) Clay Jenkinson and David Swenson speak with USAF Major Robert Baran, a Jefferson Hour listener and supporter stationed in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.
Show 929 Pay for It (7-24-11) President Jefferson offers his insight about America's financial problems and what the nation should do about it.
Show 928 Jefferson's Advice (7-17-11) President Jefferson responds to listener questions including how one can live a more enlightened life (gardening, reading, participation in public life, more conversation, etc.), a question about Jefferson playing chess (he was proud to say he once beat Benjamin Franklin), Jefferson's thoughts on art, his thoughts on celebrity, and how he dealt with conflict and always tried to maintain civil discourse.
Show 927 Gentleman and Scholar (7-10-11) President Jefferson speaks about his gardens, his library and assisting young scholars with their studies by providing reading lists and reading plans.
Jefferson's letter and reading list sent to John Garland Jefferson, New York, June 11, 1790
All that is necessary for a student is access to a library, and directions in what order the books are to be read. This I will take the liberty of suggesting to you, observing that as other branches of science, and especially history, are necessary to form a lawyer, these must be carried on together. I will arrange the books to be read into three columns, and propose that you should read in the first column till 12. oclock every day; those in the 2d. Form 12. to 2. those in the 3d. after candlelight, leaving all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading: I will rather say more necessary, because health is worth more than learning.
1st
Coke on Littleton
Coke's 2d. 3d. & 4th. Institutes
Vaughan's do Salkeld's
Ld. Raymond's
In 3 vols. Folio com- piled by Kennet.
Kaim's Principles of Equity
Vernon's reports.
Peere Williams.
Precedents in Chancery.
Tracy Atheyns.
Verey.
Hawkin's Pleas of The crown.
Blackstone
Virginia laws.
Strange's
2nd
Dalrymple's feudal System.
Hale's history of the Com. Law.
Ludlow's memoirs: Rents
Distresses
Ejectments.
Executions.
Evidence.
Sayer's law of costs.
Lambard's circonantia.
Bacon. Voce Pleas & Pleadings
Cumingham's law of Bills.
Molley de jure martimo.
Locke on government.
Montesquieu's Spirit of law.
Smith's wealth of Nations.
Beccaria.
Kaim's moral essays.
Vattel's law of nations.
Gilbert on Devises Uses Tenures
3d
Mallet's North anti- quit'.
History of England
Burnets' history
Ld. Orrery's history.
Burke's George III.
Robertson's hist. of Scotl'd.
Robertson's hist. of America.
Other American histories.
Voltaire's historical work
Should there be any little interval in the day not otherwise occupied fill them up by reading Lowthe's grammar, Blair's lectures on rhetoric, Mason on poetic & prosaic numbers, Bolingbroke's works for the sake of the stile, which is declamatory & elegant, the English poets for the sake of style also....I would have you determine beforehand to make yourself a thorough lawyer, & not be contented with a mere smattering. It is superiority of knowledge which can alone lift you above the heads of your competitors, and ensure you success. I think therefore you must calculate on devoting between two & three years to this course of reading, before you think of commencing practice.
(Letter to John Garland Jefferson, New York, June 11, 1790).
Show 926 The Declaration (7-3-11) This week is the annual 4th of July show. President Jefferson speaks about the Declaration of Independence. Clay asks listeners to tell us their idea of a Jeffersonian 4th of July celebration.
Show 925 Nicandri and Jefferson (6-26-11) David Nicandri, author of "River of Promise" has a chance to speak with President Jefferson and ask him questions about Lewis and Clark.
Show 924 Nicandri (6-19-11) Clay Jenkinson has a conversation with the author David Nicandri about his book "River of Promise"
Click here to purchase River of Promise
Show 923 England (6-12-11) Clay Jenkinson reports on the recent cultural tour to England
Show 922 Off to Sea (6-5-11) Clay Jenkinson talks about the death of Bin Laden and about leading a cultural tour to England
Show 921 Needs of Man (5-29-11) President Jefferson talks about the needs of man and his vision for America as an ideal agrarian based republic filled with self sufficient independant citizens.
Show 920 Jefferson's Dream (5-22-11) Clay Jenkinson answers listener questions and talks about performing with Bill Crystal, the Jefferson Hour barn, the James Calendar conspiracy, whether or not Jefferson would have used an Apple computer, Jefferson and nature and finally what Clay calls the "core of the core of the core of Jefferson's philosophy".
Show 919 The Humanities (5-29-11) Clay Jenkinson talks about his garden, his upcoming trip to Europe and answers listener questions this week - including a question about Jefferson's Welsh ancestry, and a number of questions about the humanities.
Show 918 Northwest Ordinance (5-15-11) President Thomas Jefferson (as portrayed by humanities scholar Clay S. Jenkinson) discusses the effects of the Northwest Ordinance and how it eventually led to the American Civil War
Show 917 Jefferson's Bible (5-8-11) President Jefferson tells us about his personal version of the Bible, known as The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. Jefferson used a razor to cut out and arrange verses from the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in chronological order. His version excluded all references to miracles and and focused on the moral teachings of Jesus. After completion of the Life and Morals, about 1820, Jefferson shared it with a number of friends, but he never allowed it to be published during his lifetime.
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