Abstract

This volume forms a part of the Great American Thinkers Series and is intended for the general reader. It is largely devoted to a highly readable biography of Jefferson in which main emphasis is placed on his political activities and ideas, and their influence upon the development of the United States. A separate essay at the end gives the outlines of Jefferson's thought, relating it to the contemporary ideas of the enlightenment, and tracing its sources to those thinkers whom Jefferson most admired, Bacon, Newton, Locke, and Epicurus. In discussing these figures, the author exhibits an unfortunate tendency towards facile and occasionally incorrect generalizations.—A. F. G.