TTC Video - Thomas Jefferson: American Visionary


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No longer available and or listed at the TTC home page.

Darren Staloff
Thomas Jefferson American Visionary 
DVD2 
scanned guide 
course 839 
L12 30 mintes long 
Out Of Print


File Name: L01 - The Allure & Challenge of Thomas Jefferson.avi 
File Size: 184,248,320 Bytes 
Video Codec: DX50 
Video Bitrate: 669 kb/s 
QPel?:  
H264?:  
GMC:  
Audio Codec: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3 
Audio Bitrate: 128 kb/s 
Audio Bitrate Type: CBR 
Duration: 16:37.340 
Frame Count: 29890 
Frames Per Second: 29.970 
Display Aspect Ratio: 1.333 
Frame Width: 640 
Frame Height: 480 


Thomas Jefferson: American Visionary

by  Darren Staloff (Biography)

The following materials are provided to enhance your learning experience. Click the links below for free information including a professor-authored course summary, recommended web links, and a condensed bibliography. 

Course Summary - Professor's written description of the course. 
Professor Recommended Links 
Condensed Bibliography - Prepared by the professor for this course.

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Course Summary 

A man of remarkable intellectual interests and achievements, Thomas Jefferson is probably the most central and revered figure in Revolutionary and Early National America. Uniquely relevant, Jefferson’s influence was felt on almost every critical policy question facing the young Republic, and his rhetorical and political legacy is still very much alive and contested today. Yet Jefferson has still remained a largely enigmatic figure, one that is peculiarly hard to place in terms of character and core convictions. These twelve lectures will be devoted to trying to elicit some of those convictions and reveal some of the personality traits of one of America’s most remarkable statesmen and thinkers. The lectures will seek to understand Jefferson in his own words, viewing his beliefs in the context of his actions as well as the larger historical milieu. The goal will be to note development in Jefferson’s thinking and practice, as well as to identify his core beliefs.

The first two lectures are devoted to setting the context for Jefferson’s remarkable public career. His early childhood is examined as is his precocious intellectual development at the College of William and Mary. The second lecture details Jefferson’s philosophical beliefs, ranging from the metaphysical to the moral and aesthetic. We note the philosophically radical and eclectic nature of Jefferson’s thought and come to understand the foundational beliefs in nature and reason that informed his writing of the Declaration of Independence.

The next two lectures detail Jefferson’s early political career. Lecture Three examines his distinguished if unremunerative legal career and his experience as a radical member of the colonial legislature. We also examine his first foray into revolutionary writing in a pamphlet that would secure him national fame and his rhetorical genius is further examined in the Declaration of Independence. Lecture Four examines Jefferson’s proposed constitutional and legal reforms for Virginia, which suggest a mind in transition from traditional conservatism to enlightened radicalism. We conclude with an examination of Jefferson’s difficult tenure as wartime governor and the tragic death of his wife.

Lectures Five and Six examine the maturation of Jefferson’s political thought. Notes on the State of Virginia reveals a fundamental tension between the ideals of agrarianism and anti-slavery and the realities of early American society and racism. We follow Jefferson’s career abroad in lecture Six, and see a further exploration of the radical potential of his beliefs, as well as romantic engagements.

Lectures Seven through Nine focus on Jefferson’s critical role in the new nation, as Secretary of State, Vice President, and leader of the Republican opposition. Jeffersonian constitutional doctrines and partisan differences of this period are explored in some detail, as are the circumstances surrounding Jefferson’s eventual election to the presidency in 1800. His brilliant successes as President are detailed (e.g., cutting the federal deficit, shrinking the size of government, the Louisiana Purchase, cutting taxes, etc.) as well as his less successful ventures (the Burr prosecution, the Embargo of 1807-1809).

The final three lectures trace Jefferson’s life in retirement and offer some assessment of his overall career. Even in pastoral repose Jefferson was a whirlwind of activity, offering political advice, founding the University of Virginia, and leaving a remarkable literary legacy in his correspondence with his friend and rival, John Adams. The final lecture offers some speculations about the man behind the public persona, as well as the meaning of Jefferson’s legacy and career for Americans then and now.

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Professor Recommend Links

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Condensed Bibliography 

These selected titles from the reading list are now available on Amazon.com. Click on a title for more information and/or to order the title. 


** American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson. Ellis, Joseph

A well-received recent worked that tries to get behind the mask and image of Jefferson. 


** Notes on the State of Virginia. Jefferson, Thomas

This fascinating primary source is well worth reading to gain a glimpse at America in the late 18th century. 


**Thomas Jefferson: A Strange Case of Mistaken Identity. Mapp, Alf J., Jr.


Darren Staloff 
City College of New York
Ph.D., Columbia University  
 
Darren Staloff is an Associate Professor of History at the City College of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He received his B.A. from Columbia College and his M.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. from Columbia University. 

Prior to taking his position at City College, Staloff served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Early American History and Culture in Williamsburg, Virginia. He also spent three years as a preceptor of Contemporary Civilization at Columbia University. 

Professor Staloff is the recipient of a National Endowment of Humanities Fellowship, the President’s Fellowship at Columbia University, and the Harry J. Carman Scholar at Columbia University. 

Professor Staloff has published numerous papers and reviews on the subject of early American history and is the author of The Making of an American Thinking Class: Intellectuals and Intelligentsia in Puritan Massachusetts (1998). He is currently completing a book entitled The Politics of Enlightenment: Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams and the Founding of the American Republic. 

 
Courses by this professor: 
Great Minds of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 3rd Edition >