Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

March 06, 2005

Doubting Thomas

"Bashing" Thomas Jefferson "is an easy game," a Washington Post book review notes. "Among some historians, it's fashionable to denigrate the founder who spoke out the most passionately for democracy, equality, religious tolerance, separation of church and state and freedom of expression and conscience. But Andrew Burstein's Jefferson's Secrets takes a different tack, one that is more subtle, more penetrating and ultimately more rewarding. Focusing on the 17 intellectually rich years Jefferson had after he retired from public life, Burstein asks what Jefferson's life looked like to him. How did Jefferson make moral sense of his world? What roles did family, women, sex, slavery, health, religion and politics play in his life?"

Also reviewed is Joseph Wheelan's Jefferson's Vendetta, another troubling portait of America's third president, one that retells the Aaron Burr conspiracy. "Wheelan recounts nicely the whole strange, murky story, including the spectacular treason trial, one of the great show trials of the young republic."
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Taegan D. Goddard is the creator of Political Wire, a political column updated around the clock with the most interesting news, buzz and commentary.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

This is a personal site and does not necessarily reflect the views of any company, political campaign or advocacy group.

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