Bibliography of works on Thomas Jefferson


This Bibliography of works on Thomas Jefferson is a comprehensive list of published works about Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States. Biographical and political accounts for Jefferson now span across three centuries. Up until 1851, virtually all biographical accounts for Jefferson relied on general and common knowledge gained from official records and public writings and newspapers. It wasn't until Henry S. Randall, the first historian allowed to interview Jefferson's family, giving him access to family letters and records, did biographies of Jefferson take on a more intimate perspective. Randall wrote an 1858 three-volume biography which set the premise for many biographies that followed.
Before Randall, George Tucker produced his two-volume 1837 account of Jefferson which offered a glint of insight into Jefferson's personal life. Following Jefferson's death he was roundly criticized by the Christian Clergy for his Bible and other writings. Tucker was the first notable historian to explore Jefferson's religious life from a biographical perspective. Though scrutinized by some historians before, during the 1960s civil rights era, historians, many of them with political and social motivations, began criticizing Jefferson for owning slaves and his racial views. While some of their accounts were unforgiving with their often selective points of view, others have noted that Jefferson, while owning slaves and reluctant to release them into freedom unprepared, was among the first of his time to advance the idea of equality and freedom for the African descendants enslaved in the new world. Many of the older biographical works are now in the public domain and often available online in their entirety in the form of e-books, while later publications whose copyrights are still valid can often be partially viewed on the internet.

Jefferson overview

Thomas Jefferson was an American Founding Father, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and the third President of the United States. He served in the Continental Congress, and as a wartime Governor of Virginia. From mid-1784 Jefferson served as a diplomat, stationed in Paris. In May 1785, he became the United States Minister to France.
Jefferson was the first United States Secretary of State serving under President George Washington. Jefferson and James Madison, organized the Democratic-Republican Party, and subsequently resigned from Washington's cabinet. Elected Vice President in 1796. He wrote the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which attempted to nullify the Alien and Sedition Acts.
As president Jefferson promoted and authorized the Louisiana Purchase from France, and sent the Lewis and Clark Expedition to explore the new west. His Vice President Aaron Burr was tried for treason. Hoping to avert war he attempted economic warfare against Britain with his embargo laws. In 1807 he drafted and signed into law a bill banning the importation of slaves into the United States.
Jefferson was a leader in the Enlightenment. He founded the University of Virginia after his presidency. He designed his own large mansion at Monticello and the University of Virginia building. Jefferson was a skilled writer and corresponded with many influential people in America and Europe throughout his adult life. His letters number in the many thousands and are used extensively as references for nearly all works on Jefferson.

Legend

Sources and publications for Jefferson have emerged for more than 200 years and at this late date there exist many hundreds of them. As such this bibliography, though extensive, is by no means complete at this time. This bibliography also contains books whose titles and subjects are not devoted to Thomas Jefferson per se, but whose content covers the subject of Jefferson well enough for their inclusion in this bibliography.
Format used for listing publications:
Lastname, Firstname;. Title of book in italics, Publisher, Location, 123 pages; 123-4-5678-9012-3 ; URL link Book

Note: Some publications make no reference to Location and/or have no ISBN. Unlike bibliographies in subject articles, "Cite book" templates are not used here because too many templates on one page often causes server overload, which often causes load/save problems.

Biographical

University of Virginia Press, 1448 pages; ;