elucidates Jefferson's nation-making
Jefferson's Empire: The Language of American Nationhood, Peter
S. Onuf, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Professor of History,
grapples with that most perplexing of contradictions, Jefferson's
spirited defense of the liberty of all men and his inability to
relinquish what he called the "unremitting despotism"
of slavery. In exploring the third presidentıs political philosophy,
his vision of the future, his understanding of the meaning of
the American Revolution, and his views on race, Onuf illuminates
the tension between Jeffersonıs vision of a "regime of consent"
and his grasp of the practical needs of a young nation struggling